People will vote for Kejriwal, his work: AAP South Delhi candidate

By Nivedita Singh

New Delhi, May 7 (IANS) AAP's South Delhi Lok Sabha candidate Raghav Chadha feels people living in the national capital will vote for the work done by the party and its leader as well as Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the last four years.

The 30-year-old chartered accountant jumped into politics in 2012 -- when the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was born from the India Against Corruption movement.

Chadha, who is pitted against BJP's sitting MP Ramesh Bidhuri (57) and Congress' celebrity candidate boxer Vijender Singh (33), also feels he will appeal to the youth as he is the youngest candidate.

"This election is to defeat the BJP. It is between the people of Delhi and the BJP and its candidate Bhiduri."

Since taking power in 2015, the AAP has done a lot of work in the field of electricity, water supply, health and education, Chadha said.

"In 70 years when the BJP and the Congress ruled the city, they collectively could not do so much. This time people will vote for Kejriwal and his work."

"People have seen the work of the Kejriwal government," he added.

When pointed out that BJP candidates also feel that their party will get votes due to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said that Bidhuri was not an ideal candidate and people were scared to go to his office or approach him with their issues.

"People are unhappy with the BJP MP. They are scared to approach him. They feel he can beat and abuse them when contacted. The way he talks and deals with people will turn out to be a major factor in the elections. People want an educated and honest man who can understand the issues and can resolve them."

Calling the Congress and its candidate "irrelevant", he said: "They named a celebrity as they don't have anyone in south Delhi at the local level. They don't have any leader or workers.

"The celebrity came here just days before the elections and disappear soon. They remain missing for five years, while the public kept suffering. I am a local man who understands the local issues. I know what needs special attention."

Listing out the issues, he says there were still pockets in his area where people don't have water supply, proper roads and sewage connection.

Chadha, who is known to be close to Kejriwal, added that his first priority would be to fight to make Delhi a full state.

Bidhuri won the South Delhi Lok Sabha seat in 2014 with 497,980 votes (45.34 per cent) while Col. Devinder Sehrawat (AAP) was the runner-up with 390,980 votes (35.60 per cent). Ramesh Kumar from the Congress got 125,213 votes (11.40 per cent) out of the total 10,98,400 votes.

The South Delhi constituency came into existence in 1966 and has been a stronghold of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

(Nivedita Singh can be contacted at nivedita.singh@ians.in)