Voters seek availability of water, good roads as Delhi’s Rajinder Nagar goes to polls

There are more than 1.64 lakh voters in the constituency, of which 92,221 are male, 72,473 are female, and 4 are categorised as ‘third gender’. There are 1,899 voters between the ages of 18-19 years who are eligible to vote for the first time in the constituency.

Voter turnout, however, was low with only around 43.71% at 6 pm.

For Sushma Jaidka, a resident of Old Rajinder Nagar, poor roads and irregular water supply were the main issues.

Meena, another resident who came to vote with her mother-in-law, said that she has been living in the area for 40 years and echoed the same demands as Sushma. “In the past 15-20 days, water supply has been a major problem. Whoever wins should be able to do some good work for us, and ensure regular water supply and electricity,” she added.

The seat fell vacant after former AAP MLA from the area Raghav Chadha was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Punjab. While AAP fielded its MCD in-charge Durgesh Pathak from the constituency, he is up against former BJP councillor Rajesh Bhatia and Congress’ former councillor Prem Lata.

Chadha and BJP East Delhi MP Gautam Gambhir were seen casting their votes on Thursday.

Several people complained that water condition in the area has not improved despite having Chadha, who is also the chairperson for the Delhi Jal Board, as the MLA for three years.

“We want a local candidate so that we can speak our grievances to him. We saw how the last MLA remained absent from the constituency most of the time. Water is a major issue here,” Aarti Arora, resident of Old Rajinder Nagar said.

According to Kuldeep Tanwar from Narayana village, water, sewer and a closed foot overbridge were major problems. “There are several lanes where water doesn’t come at all,” he said.

The contest in the area mainly remains between BJP and AAP while the Congress was missing from several places, and their volunteers’ absence was conspicuous.

The BJP has fought the election with the slogan, “Bahari vs local” and “Sthaniya voter chunega sthaniya vidhayak (local voter will choose local MLA)”.

Vinod Kumar, a resident of Indepuri said, “There is a water supply issue, the sewers are also jammed, but people think that it is better to give the party in power another opportunity as they have more resources at their disposal to improve things.”

In Jhuggi Jhopri clusters, there was overwhelming support for AAP with people saying that free electricity has improved their lives.

Nabila Hussain, who lives in a jhuggi in the constituency said there can be improvements in infrastructure such as the building of more toilets, but residents are happy with the free electricity scheme and free bus rides for women. “We save a lot of money with free electricity and transportation,” she said.