Rohini assembly constituency: Safe seat for BJP, but voters may pose tough questions

NEW DELHI: An urbanised assembly constituency, Rohini's residents comprise businessmen and professionals and a small chunk of the lower middle class living in slum clusters.

BJP considers it a safe seat, banking on the social class that it considers its core vote bank. Indeed it won the seat in in 2015 and 2020. But a win is not a cut-and-dried prospect for the saffron party this year, with voters in the over 165 cooperative housing societies in the constituency claiming to have been alienated by the sitting MLA.

The sitting MLA, BJP's Vijendra Gupta, who was also the leader of opposition in the outgoing assembly, started his electoral career from Rohini by winning a North Delhi Municipal Corporation seat in 1997. People allege that he is taking the constituency for granted now. "See, BJP will win the upcoming elections, but the winning margin will depend on the candidate fielded by the party," declared Om Prakash Malhotra, general secretary, Sector 15 RWA. "Gupta is no longer active and didn't initiate developmental works as expected of him. He even shifted to Greater Kailash from here."

Tushar Pulisht, a sound engineer who lives in Sector 3, pointed out that crime has been checked, but other problems have replaced the area's major lacks. "It's a good neighbourhood, has many parks and open spaces. But there seems to be a lack of maintenance. We also need to see our MLA more often," said Pulisht.

In Raja Vihar, a slum on the fringes of the constituency, the people charge the incumbent legislator with "indifference". Nakul Kumar, a UP migrant who makes a living as an e-rickshaw driver, grumbled, "People living in housing societies can easily afford drinking water. But what about us? The water we get tastes awful. If we are late in switching on the water pump at supply time, we literally receive sewage. BJP people blame it on the AAP govt, but we did not see the MLA after the elections. He hasn't bothered to visit us."

But beyond the grouses against the MLA, the area desires clean water supply, upgraded sewers, especially in the urban villages, better health infrastructure, more govt schools, better roads and cleaner neighbourhoods. Interestingly, several young voters named pollution as an issue, especially dust.

According to a local businessman Sanjeev Rao, who lives in Naharpur village, the conditions are unbearable in the monsoons. "This village was urbanised in the 1980s and the sewerage was laid then for a population of 2,500. Now more than 20,000 people live here. Can you expect the same sewer line to function properly?" asked Rao, adding that the murky water supplied was another bane.

Poor sanitation raises the hackles of Kamla Sharma, a retired teacher living in Sector 11. "There were several dhalaos here. They were disused, which is good. But the door-to-door collection of garbage has been so inefficient that people have been forced to dump waste at the cleaned-up dhalao sites. When it rains, the garbage flows everywhere and creates a big stench," said Sharma.

While BJP may still garner support among the middle class, AAP counts pockets of support. In the 2020 polls, 45 out of the 171 polling stations in the constituency gave AAP the edge. Local workers of both AAP and BJP say these polling stations are located in low-income localities, slums and unauthorised colonies, all AAP catchment areas.