Vishwas Nagar Assembly Elections 2020 | The Vishwas Nagar Assembly constituency in Delhi will vote on 8 February along with 69 other constituencies in the single-phase Assembly polls to be held in the National Capital. Counting of votes will be conducted on 11 February.
This year, the BJP has once again fielded OP Sharma while, Deepak Singla will contest the 2010 polls on AAP ticket and Congress will be represented by Gurcharan Singh Rau from the Congress.
Following is a brief description of the Assembly constituency (as of 2015):
Constituency number: 59
Total electors: 1,86,871
Male: 1,01,705
Female: 85,149
Transgender: 17
Voter turnout in last Assembly Election: 68.96 percent
Polling stations: 175
Results in the last three elections
BJP’s Om Prakash Sharma was elected in both the 2013 and 2015 Assembly polls from Vishwas Nagar. In 2015, he defeated AAP’s Atul Gupta by over 10,000 votes and in 2013, he defeated Congress’ Naseeb Singh by over 7,000 votes. In 2008 Assembly elections, Congress’ Naseeb Singh had won this seat, defeating Sharma by a margin of more than 9,000 votes.
Demography
Vishwas Nagar Assembly constituency is a part of East Delhi Lok Sabha constituency. The constituency houses an industrial area, which gives rise to concern about pollution of air and water bodies. Recently, the National Green Tribunal directed the Delhi Government to immediately shut down all the industrial units operating in residential areas, including Vishwas Nagar.
In the past year, issues raised in the locality include potholes and bad quality of roads, security of locality and rising vehicle thefts.
A total of 1.46 crore voters can exercise their franchise in the upcoming Delhi Assembly elections, according to the final electoral list for Delhi published on 5 January, on the day the election dates were announced. The number of service voters are 11,556. Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Delhi Ranbir Singh said the final publication of voters list shows there are total 1,46,92,136 voters in Delhi, including 80.55 lakh males and 66.35 lakh females.
Major parties in the fray: AAP, BJP, Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party, Shiromani Akali Dal
In 2015, the Assembly polls in Delhi were held on 7 February and the result was announced on 10 February. The AAP had secured an absolute majority in the Assembly, winning 67 of the 70 seats, while the BJP secured win in only three. Parties like the Congress, which was in power in the National Capital between 1998 and 2013 for three terms; BSP, Shiromani Akali Dal and Indian National Lok Dal failed to secure any seats.
The ruling AAP is looking at a return in the high-stake 2020 Assembly polls, even as the BJP has its eyes on the National Capital, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi having sounded the election bugle at a mega rally in Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan, which focused mainly on the issue of regularising 1,731 unauthorised colonies.
The AAP tied up with Prashant Kishor’s Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC), credited for propelling Modi-led BJP to a victory in 2014. Kishor had tweeted: “Get ready to see the power of people on Tuesday, 11 February!”
On 20 December, 2019, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia launched the slogan, “Acche beete paanch saal-Lage raho Kejriwal” (the last five years went well, keep going Kejriwal), kickstarting the party’s campaign.
Meanwhile, the Congress is fighting for survival in Delhi, with the absence of strong leadership within the party.
Touted to be a two-sided battle, both the AAP and BJP are expected to focus on local issue, as opposed to the saffron party’s previous election pitches based on national issues like demonetization, surgical strikes and Citizenship Amendment Act. In the recent Assembly elections in Haryana, Maharashtra and Jharkhand, the BJ’s vote share reduced significantly, even as the party failed to secure a majority in a single state since Gujarat election in 2017.