While regularization of unauthorized colonies has remained a political hot potato since the first set were categorized in the 1970s, the 2015 polls define the power of the voters here who have since December 2013 joined the chorus for development beyond poll sops.
After a roadshow through slums and resettlements in Kalkaji, the Congress decision to hold a rally Badarpur area of south Delhi surrounded by a dense belt of 300-odd unauthorized colonies brings into focus how the city's underbelly holds the key to the outcome of assembly polls.
As Congress president Sonia Gandhi passed through the congested, poverty-ridden and dense areas of Meethapur-Jaitpur in an open vehicle, the message was clear that anyone seeking to win the polls will have to prove their mettle to this constituency.
Gandhi's assertion on 895 colonies claimed to have been cleared for regularization during the Sheila Dikshit government regime yet again brought to the fore that the politics around urban poverty continues to hold sway. The Congress president was speaking at her first pre-poll rally.
In this three-cornered contest largely seen as a close fight between BJP and AAP, the Congress focus on holding road shows and public meetings to reach out to those who live on the margins of Delhi's developed interiors aims at winning back traditional voters who stuck to it since the days of Indira Gandhi.
In the run-up to the 2008 polls too, the Congress president had handed out provisional regularization certificates to 1,200-plus colonies assuring speedy legalization after polls. However, that never happened and the Sheila Dikshit government was seen struggling a year before the 2013 polls to get the regularization of the over 1,600 illegal colonies through.
Though it managed to clear 895 colonies for regularization just a few months before polls, this belt rejected Congress and shifted to AAP. This time Sonia just cited other achievements of 15 years of Congress rule.
The rally venue, surrounded by garbage dumps, pigs and a stinking Agra canal, only emphasized the gap between promise and reality. The crowd was strong and even responsive about problems of sanitation and development. The voters came seeking solutions.
For now the grand old party feels that Gandhi's visit to one of the poorest neighbourhoods of Delhi will send out a strong message of the party's efforts to reconnect with the masses. In the last polls and later in Lok Sabha election, the Congress leadership had conceded to its disconnect with the grassroots and promised a revival by reaching out to the common man.
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