Delhi to face Lok Sabha election heat today as Narendra Modi, Priyanka Gandhi take their campaigns to capital city

In Phase 6 of the Lok Sabha election, scheduled for 12 May, a few constituencies in Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal will go to polls, along with all the Lok Sabha constituencies of Haryana and the National Capital Territory of Delhi. With this phase of the election in sight, Delhi will witness power-packed campaigning on Wednesday, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi scheduled to address a rally at Ramleela Maidan and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi to lead two roadshows for party candidates. As the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) could not forge an alliance for the Lok Sabha election, it will be a triangular contest in the National Capital between AAP, BJP and Congress. [caption id=“attachment_6485871” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing a rally. Reuters[/caption] AAP is hard selling the promise of fighting for statehood for Delhi, apart from vowing to give priority to residents of the city by ensuring up to 85 percent reservation in Delhi’s colleges. The BJP, on the other hand, has been campaigning in innovative ways to woo the Delhi voters. One of its campaigns, which has “Dilli ke dil main hai josh, Dilli ke dil main hai Modi” as its tagline, focuses on the United Nations declaring Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar a global terrorist and criticises the AAP government’s “failures on several fronts”. Another campaign talks about corruption and terrorism that the Modi government has “effectively tackled”. Delhi has seven Lok Sabha constituencies — New Delhi, South Delhi, West Delhi, East Delhi, Chandni Chowk, North West Delhi and North East Delhi. In the 2014 election, the BJP had won all seven. This year, the saffron party denied tickets to its sitting MP from North West Delhi, Udit Raj, and from East Delhi, Mahesh Giri. Instead, the BJP fielded singer Hans Raj Hans from North West Delhi and cricketer Gautam Gambhir in place of Giri. Most of BJP’s candidates in Delhi are high-profile. They include incumbent Union minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, chief of Delhi BJP Manoj Tiwari, and Supreme Court lawyer and BJP national spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi. This makes the battle in Delhi not just about winning but about prestige, as well, for the BJP. The Congress has fielded former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit against Tiwari. It’s other candidates are senior leaders Arvinder Singh Lovely (East Delhi), Ajay Maken (New Delhi) and boxer Vijender Singh (South Delhi). AAP has fielded one of its most visible faces on television, party spokesperson Raghav Chadha (South Delhi), apart from Brijesh Goyal (New Delhi), Atishi (East Delhi) and Balbir Singh Jakhar (West Delhi). With so many high-profile names and constituencies in the fray, the contest in Delhi will be interesting to watch. Besides Delhi, Modi will also address public meetings in Fatehabad, Sirsa and Kurukshetra in Haryana, while BJP national president Amit Shah will address public meetings in Dhanbad and Jamshedpur in Jharkhand, followed by rallies at Ujjain and Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh.