Morning joggers at Lodhi Garden were in for a surprise on Saturday morning when Delhi BJP chief Vijay Goel turned up with a handful of supporters as part of his outreach to voters.
New Delhi:
Morning joggers at Lodhi Garden were in for a surprise on Saturday morning when Delhi BJP chief Vijay Goel turned up with a handful of supporters as part of his outreach to voters. Mr Goel, who this week has had to parade his supporters in front of the BJP top brass in the capital, is facing a tough challenge from within the party to be the chief ministerial candidate.
Mr Goel walked around the garden for around a hour, stopping now and then to talk to early morning walkers and joggers. The BJP city chief has made the 'high prices of electricity' and allegations of massive bungling over privatization of power as one of his main election planks.
"The BJP will bring down the power tariff by 30% in Delhi, when we are elected to power. It is one of the things that are easily doable to benefit the common citizens of Delhi. Power tariff is high in Delhi not because of cost equation but because of corruption and lack of political will on part of the government." Mr Goel told a senior citizen at the park.
The BJP earlier this week had launched its 'Door to Door ' campaign to try and reach out with its message to voters.
The congress however is not in a hurry with its campaign. At its bi-weekly press conference at Chief Minister's residence, Delhi's Urban Development minister Arvinder Lovely, one of Sheila Dikshit's most trusted lieutenants, explains that the Congress' main plank will be the 'development and improvement that the government has brought to the people'. Mr Lovely, accompanied by Power Minister Haroon Yusuf, another party loyalist accuses the BJP of making 'false allegations and giving distorted figures' about water and power shortage in the city.
Both the Congress and BJP have yet to declare candidates for the 70 seats. Party workers say that once that process is complete then campaigning will pick up.
Meanwhile in another part of south Delhi, an unusual group is assembles at the prince pan shop in Greater Kailash. Meera Sanyal, a senior bank executive who had contested as an independent candidate in Mumbai, has just flown in for a week to canvass for Arvind Kejriwal's Aam admi Party.
"It's not easy fighting established big parties, but the time has come for a change in the system," she says, adding, "housewives, retired armymen, and even a driver are working for Delhi' newest political party."
Moushami, a PR executive who has been living off her savings since April when she quit her job to help campaign for AAP, says "the city and the country is ready for change," but hastily adds, "I will desperately start looking for a job in December after polling, as my savings are running out."
Two guitarists start strumming 'vande mataram' almost on cue to match the arrival of Saurabh Bharadwaj, the 33 year old B Tech computer science graduate and the AAP candidate from Greater Kailash.
Saurabh pauses and ducks into each shop to speak with the shop owners and customers. He says "Vote for change, vote for yourself, vote for AAP," as the two guitarists add a festive note to the entire procession. The music and commotion quickly draws out shop owners and customers further down the corridor.
"I never wanted to join politics but was influenced by the Anna movement," says Saurabh, who organises two such outreach campaigns every day apart from going door-to-door in his assembly with the volunteers. After a pause, he adds, 'Unless common people start taking interest in governance then things cannot change."
As Saurabh and group come to the end of the market, a young girl and her friend come out of a coffee shop to see what's the commotion about. "I thought it was a college band," says one of the girls before starting to sing along with the AAP group.
"Look around. There is a change in the air," Meera Sanyal says, as a nip in the evening air marks the slow onset of winter in Delhi. The battle for Delhi has begun, and it promises to be anything but cold.
Mr Goel walked around the garden for around a hour, stopping now and then to talk to early morning walkers and joggers. The BJP city chief has made the 'high prices of electricity' and allegations of massive bungling over privatization of power as one of his main election planks.
"The BJP will bring down the power tariff by 30% in Delhi, when we are elected to power. It is one of the things that are easily doable to benefit the common citizens of Delhi. Power tariff is high in Delhi not because of cost equation but because of corruption and lack of political will on part of the government." Mr Goel told a senior citizen at the park.
The BJP earlier this week had launched its 'Door to Door ' campaign to try and reach out with its message to voters.
The congress however is not in a hurry with its campaign. At its bi-weekly press conference at Chief Minister's residence, Delhi's Urban Development minister Arvinder Lovely, one of Sheila Dikshit's most trusted lieutenants, explains that the Congress' main plank will be the 'development and improvement that the government has brought to the people'. Mr Lovely, accompanied by Power Minister Haroon Yusuf, another party loyalist accuses the BJP of making 'false allegations and giving distorted figures' about water and power shortage in the city.
Both the Congress and BJP have yet to declare candidates for the 70 seats. Party workers say that once that process is complete then campaigning will pick up.
Meanwhile in another part of south Delhi, an unusual group is assembles at the prince pan shop in Greater Kailash. Meera Sanyal, a senior bank executive who had contested as an independent candidate in Mumbai, has just flown in for a week to canvass for Arvind Kejriwal's Aam admi Party.
"It's not easy fighting established big parties, but the time has come for a change in the system," she says, adding, "housewives, retired armymen, and even a driver are working for Delhi' newest political party."
Moushami, a PR executive who has been living off her savings since April when she quit her job to help campaign for AAP, says "the city and the country is ready for change," but hastily adds, "I will desperately start looking for a job in December after polling, as my savings are running out."
Two guitarists start strumming 'vande mataram' almost on cue to match the arrival of Saurabh Bharadwaj, the 33 year old B Tech computer science graduate and the AAP candidate from Greater Kailash.
Saurabh pauses and ducks into each shop to speak with the shop owners and customers. He says "Vote for change, vote for yourself, vote for AAP," as the two guitarists add a festive note to the entire procession. The music and commotion quickly draws out shop owners and customers further down the corridor.
"I never wanted to join politics but was influenced by the Anna movement," says Saurabh, who organises two such outreach campaigns every day apart from going door-to-door in his assembly with the volunteers. After a pause, he adds, 'Unless common people start taking interest in governance then things cannot change."
As Saurabh and group come to the end of the market, a young girl and her friend come out of a coffee shop to see what's the commotion about. "I thought it was a college band," says one of the girls before starting to sing along with the AAP group.
"Look around. There is a change in the air," Meera Sanyal says, as a nip in the evening air marks the slow onset of winter in Delhi. The battle for Delhi has begun, and it promises to be anything but cold.
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