A study of 2020 assembly elections in Delhi’s Malviya Nagar constituency
For the 2020 Delhi elections, the Aam Admi Party (AAP) made ‘development’, particularly its work in improving governments school and primary health care its central to its re-election campaign. To what extent did AAP’s development agenda shape the perception of voters? Did its development work figure as a prominent for voting preferences, or were other factors, such as caste, lack of an effective opposition option, strength of the candidate, political dynamics of the constituency were equally or more important. Priyadarshini explored this question through a qualitative study of three neighbourhoods in Malviya Nagar assembly constituency, Hauz Rani, Khriki and Begumpur in the run up to the Delhi elections in 2020.
The selected neighbourhoods have a cross section of class, caste and religious groups and was the epicentre of one of the key political developments of the period, the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). Hauz rani is a mix of enclaves with poor Dalit communities living alongside affluent Muslim ones which includes Afghan refugees. Khriki also has a mix of Dalit, Muslim, and Sikh communities along with Hindu upper caste shop owners. Begumpur is a predominantly Dalit neighbourhood consisting of shop owners, government employees and private sector employees. Hauz Rani is on an arterial main road of Delhi and in one of the community parks adjoining the main road, a sit-in protest against the CAA was underway from a few months before the elections in February 2020.
As part of the study, ordinary voters, local party members, community leaders and election candidates were interviewed. Campaigns of the election candidates of the main parties, AAP, BJP and Congress were also studied.
The study findings were presented at a panel discussion on 2020 Delhi election results at CPR, New Delhi.
