Caste politics is one of the talking points in the South Delhi Lok Sabha seat, which has elected big leaders including late Sushma Swaraj and Madan Lal Khurana. The constituency will go to polls on May 25, along with six other seats in Delhi.
For some voters, caste of the candidate is important, particularly in the Gujjar-dominated Tughlakabad.
“This is a Bidhuri and Gujjar area. People will vote based on their caste to make sure they are represented by a Bidhuri. Here people also focus on the caste of the local politician they are voting for, instead of just for the PM candidate,” said a 28-year-old shopkeeper in the area, who did not wish to be named.
Supporting their view, 55-year-old Mekbali said, “I prefer it if my politician is from my community and caste. Our current MP and both the candidates for the election are all Bidhuris which we like a lot.”
However, working in his small shop, a hardware mechanic in the area said on condition of anonymity that the caste politics adversely affected the region as people are not focusing on the background of the candidate or the party.
In 2014 and 2019, BJP’s Ramesh Bidhuri was elected from this seat. In 2024, BJP replaced him with sitting MLA Ramvir Singh Bidhuri from Badarpur – an assembly constituency falling under the South Delhi Lok Sabha.
Speaking about BJP’s Ramesh Bidhuri, Prince Kumar, a 36-year-old man running a small business, said that the leader has done a lot for the constituency.
“I started my business with his support only. He and his office helped me a lot. Not only the individuals but he has done a lot of things for the area as well. He built Barat Ghars, enhanced electrification in the area and also piped water supply. The constituency has transformed under him in the last 10 years,” 36-year-old Kumar said.
As per a local BJP leader working on the ground, MP Bidhuri understood the area inside out.
“The challenge on this seat is that it has a lot of unauthorised colonies. Yet, we provided electrification in the area and installed new drainage systems. New pipelines for water supply in several areas were also laid,” the leader said, demanding anonymity.
As per the website of the current MP, he is “well aware of the problems that the people of South Delhi are facing”.
“Problems such as lack of hospitals/health centers for poor people, education of children failure of opening any college in the area during the last 30 years, lack of overbridges on railway lines, Playgrounds and sports complexes for children, problem of drinking water in Palam, Brijwasan, Mehrauli, Ambedkar Nagar, Sangam Vihar, Devli, Kalkaji and Tughlakabad assembly constituencies. People of the area have been waiting for the last 20 years for the work to be done…,” it reads.
The seat has been a stronghold of the BJP with the party winning eight times since 1989, except in 2009 when the Congress won from the seat. Also, for the third time since 2014, the seat will see an AAP vs BJP battle. While the BJP has named Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, it is Sahiram Pehalwan from the AAP side. Both the leaders are current members of the Delhi assembly, elected in 2020. In Delhi, the AAP and the Congress are contesting the Lok Sabha polls in alliance.
The constituency houses posh colonies like Vasant Kunj and Chattarpur and premium central government institutes likes Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) and Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri National Sanskrit University. These colleges get a lot of young students from outside Delhi. The seat has over 23,000 first time voters in the age bracket of 18-19 years.
The students living in Ber Sarai, Katwaria Sarai and Zia Sarai raised the issue of lack of healthcare facilities for them and some regulations on landlords renting them spaces.
“We are students. We neither can afford to go to private hospitals nor can we spend the whole day in AIIMS or Safdarjung when we fall sick. There are no smaller nearby hospitals to cater to the huge number of students living in the area. I am not asking for something big but there can be a small dispensary that can be started keeping in mind the students,” said 22-year-old Surbhi Yadav.
Another major issue in these areas was housing for students with landlords imposing arbitrary rules. “One small room is rented to six to eight boys. They all share the same bathroom. There is exploitation of students in the area. There should be a check or inspection of how many people are living in a rented room and authorities should have some guidelines on the same,” said 28-year-old Saurabh Pandey who is preparing for competitive exams.
The Locals
Some voters also felt that false promises were made every five years only to buy votes. Rashmi, from Kalkaji, believed that the middle class issues are never spoken about. “Locally, no politician addresses the issues of the middle class, which is the biggest problem we face. There are schemes for the poor that help them, and the rich keep growing richer, but no one looks towards the middle class to solve their problems,” she said.
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