In Kalkaji, ‘Dilli ki ladki’ Alka Lamba pitches development under Congress

Sharing a little relationship of her governmental vocation — she was 19 erstwhile she was elected president of the Delhi University Students’ Union from the National Students Union of India — she says she has ever been a ‘Dilli ki ladki’.

To beryllium sure, Lamba is nary alien to Delhi’s politics. The 49-year-old is backmost successful the electoral fray aft implicit 5 years but has 3 decades of governmental acquisition nether her belt. After a five-year stint successful the expansive aged party, Lamba joined the AAP successful 2014 and was elected from Chandni Chowk arsenic an MLA successful 2015. She parted ways with the enactment successful September 2019 and returned to the Congress days later.

It is governance and improvement nether the Congress rule, specifically achievements of erstwhile Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, that forms her canvass pitch, which she pits against the BJP’s ‘misogyny’ and the AAP’s ‘sharab ki rajneeti’.

“From the bhagidari strategy to preserving the greenish loop of the city, bringing successful CNG buses to the Metro, Sheila ji carried retired aggregate works for the improvement of the city. All the flyovers you spot successful the metropolis and the maturation astatine which Delhi developed nether her authorities is thing Delhiites volition ever cherish and remember. If radical privation change, past they person to ballot for the change,” she told the gathering.

Nodding along, Radha Devi (65), who was listening to Lamba from the terrace of her house, says, “Our household has been a Congress loyalist since Indira Gandhi’s clip truthful we volition ballot for Congress. But whoever comes indispensable bash thing for elder citizens. That is each we need.”

Standing astir a wide store, immoderate men who were astatine the gathering accidental this predetermination could beryllium adjacent combat betwixt sitting AAP MLA and CM Atishi and BJP campaigner Ramesh Bidhuri. While Bidhuri’s remarks connected women — helium said roads successful Kalkaji volition beryllium made arsenic creaseless arsenic Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s cheeks, targeted Atishi for changing fathers and called her a hirni — person not gone down good with men and women alike successful the area, the radical says the ex-MP mightiness person a chance.

Speaking astir issues plaguing the area, Masur Alam, who has lived successful Govindpuri for 23 years, says h2o proviso is the biggest problem. “We don’t get due supply, particularly successful summers… it comes astatine unusual hours, astir 3-4 am.” But he’s speedy to adhd helium is blessed helium doesn’t request to wage energy bills anymore — referring to the AAP’s bijli subsidy — and saves Rs 1,400-Rs 1,500 a month.

Lamba, meanwhile, heads to 2 much closed-door meetings. En route, she pauses to greet radical with a polite, ‘kaise hain aap’.

As she walks past, Ravi Arora, a backstage businessman who has been surviving successful the country for decades, speculates that Atishi inactive has an edge. “People see her approachable, arsenic idiosyncratic who ever listens to their issues. Whether roads oregon thoroughfare lights, sooner oregon later, AAP has done the work. Atishi, contempt being CM, inactive visits the country and interacts with us. The different day, she was present connected a scooter,” helium exclaims.

In the 2020 polls, Atishi coasted done comfortably, bagging 52.56% of the votes. Her rivals successful the BJP and Congress, Dharambir Singh and Shivani Chopra, got 41.84% and 4.67% of the votes respectively.

Around 4 pm, her past gathering of the day, Lamba arrives astatine the residence of Subhash Chandra Juneja (72), marketplace relation president of Govindpuri, to talk with traders and their wives.

Addressing them successful Punjabi alternatively of Hindi — the gathering is dominated by Punjabi speakers — she recounts her enactment arsenic MLA of Chandni Chowk. “MLAs get funds, astir Rs 50 crore successful 5 years. Do you deliberation the sitting MLA has spent Rs 50 crore? I was an MLA earlier and I utilised each the funds for the betterment of my constituency. I volition bash the aforesaid present if you ballot maine to power,” Lamba says.

In a excavation astatine the AAP and BJP, she says she’s ever spoken up for women and against substance abuse. “We request to enactment and benignant these 2 things, we can’t person radical promoting intoxicant by giving ‘one positive one’ (offers) and lowering the ineligible property to drink. Statements against women are each successful the nationalist domain,” she says.

After Lamba leaves, Juneja tells The Indian Express that his household has ever voted for the Congress. “Most Congress candidates who fought the elections usually had their archetypal meetings astatine our residence,” helium smiles.

The antheral isn’t blessed with the existent dispensation though. Complaining astir the authorities of roads successful the area, helium says, “It was a task to drive… particularly erstwhile I had to instrumentality my wife, a cancer survivor, successful a wheelchair successful our car. Only aft repeated requests, it was sorted.”