BJP president Amit Shah was not being facetious when he said Kiran Bedi was fielded from Krishna Nagar because the party did not want her to be tied down to one seat. The debutant Bedi does not really need to spend much time campaigning in this constituency, which has elected party veteran Harsh Vardhan for five consecutive terms in the Delhi Assembly.
Last time, he had won by 43,150 votes and the AAP was a distant second. This time, while the AAP is fielding SK Bagga, the Congress has projected local municipal councillor Bansi Lal.
In the ongoing elections, the AAP and the Congress are unable to match the BJP’s formidable organisation strength and cadre support on the ground.
In the busy market places and slum clusters, the BJP dominates with hordes of party workers busy in door-to-door campaign.
It is difficult to hear murmurs of dissent in the ranks despite the party fielding an outsider like Bedi in this traditional bastion of the BJP.
“Of course there were various aspirants for the party ticket. I too was a contender,” said Kalpana Devi Jain, a municipal councillor from Krishna Nagar.
“And I did feel let down for a day or two. But then, look at who they have chosen over me — Kiran Bedi! She is an internationally regarded public figure.
“Our leaders have chosen well. So, all of us have to keep our small hurts aside and work for the party,” she said.
There are 184 polling booths spread across four mandals in Krishna Nagar — Kondli, Geeta Colony, Krishnanagar and Anar Gali. For each of these polling booths, the BJP has a booth committee. Each booth committee has about 10-15 members or panna pramukhs.
Effectively, for one page of the voters’ list, the BJP has one person monitoring each voter.
Cadre drill
“We have a drill. We visit each household in our supervision at least four times till the date of polling. It helps the voter make up his mind,” said an RSS activist who did not wish to be named.
Additionally, volunteers are pouring in from outside the State to add to the party’s strength.
In the last one week, 50 volunteers have landed in Krishna Nagar from places as far off as Gujarat and Chhattisgarh. According to a team of volunteers from Chandigarh and Rajkot in Gujarat, the aim is to get Bedi elected by the “biggest margin possible”.
“I came in the morning and will campaign till night. The party will take care of my lodgings and food,” said Nitaben, a former sessions judge from Rajkot, Gujarat. Her companion Dipak Kohli, a volunteer from Chandigarh, said he came to assist in the BJP’s campaign primarily because of Bedi. “She is a star. She should be Chief Minister,” said Kohli.