OPINION

The battle for Delhi is all set for January-end next year. If you needed a confirmation, it was given in Home Minister Amit Shah’s interview to News18, where he gave sufficient indications for the same. The interview also showed somewhat lack of preparedness on the part of the BJP for the crucial electoral battle for legislative assembly, which the party has to fight in the nation’s Capital.

Shah, who is ruling-BJP president too, talked at aplomb of his party’s chances in Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand, the states going to the polls before Delhi and about West Bengal, the citadel which he envisages to breach in two years’ time. However, when he was asked about party’s chances in Delhi, he did not unveil a very convincing roadmap.

He first avoided a direct answer to the question if the party would go to polls in Delhi with a Chief Ministerial face, saying it could be but in the same breath added that it should not be forgotten that the party, after its debacle in 2015 assembly polls, had won the municipal polls in 2017 and also the Lok Sabha polls in 2019.

Buoyed with the grand success by securing all the 10 Lok Sabha seats from Haryana in 2019, leading in 78 Assembly segments and ending runner up in the other 11 segments, the BJP has set the target of 75 + seats out of the total 90 in the upcoming assembly polls.

The saffron party in the last Lok Sabha polls emerged victorious in the three Lok Sabha seats of Rohtak, Hisar and Sirsa, which are considered to be the Jat heartland. Coming back to the assembly polls, in 1987 BJP-Lok Dal alliance had secured 76 seats, of which BJP’s share was 16. The election was fought under the leadership of towering Jat leader Chowdhary Devi Lal, popularly known as Tau (elder uncle) across the state.

The Congress then had emerged victorious in 5 seats.  Commenting on the results, Devi Lal had said the 5 Congress MLAs were enough to take mortal remains of the party to the cremation ground as four MLAs will carry the dead body and the fifth will lead the thin crowd of the mourners by carrying a pitcher filled with water.

Despite huge mandate, in the following years the state witnessed four CMs including Devi Lal. Soon after 1989 Lok Sabha polls, Devi Lal joined the Vishwanath Pratap Singh government as the Deputy PM. He was succeeded by his son OP Chautala, who did not have a very long run as the by-election from Meham seat, though which he planned entry in assembly, ran into controversy. Thus he was succeeded by Banarsi Das Gupta.

This year during the Dusshera celebrations in the national Capital, something very unusual happened. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, unlike his predecessors, chose the outskirts of the national Capital over the Ramlila (ballad on life of Ram, the king of Ayodhya) celebrations in the walled city for Ravan Dahan (annihilating the demon).

Not that the traditional Ramlilas did not take place in the walled city. There were three in the Lal Qila grounds and the oldest in the neigbouring Ramlila grounds near Delhi Gate. With time these Ramlilas have come to be affiliate of one political party or the other, thus we had Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal at one stage and the Congress leadership on the other.

The Prime Minister chose not to be part of the ‘political divide’ and decided to be part of a celebration in the outskirts, albeit accompanied by his party colleagues Parvesh Verma, the local MP and the Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari. The message which the Prime Minister tried giving by bringing the two leaders, rivals in the faction-ridden Delhi BJP, together was to fight the upcoming assembly polls in the city unitedly.

Come November, and Arvind Kejriwal Government would be back with the much feared Odd-Even scheme of vehicle rationing on the roads of Delhi, ostensibly to reduce pollution. The move is proposed as Mr Kejriwal and his team sees ‘severe+’ pollution levels in the city following bursting of crackers during Diwali and also the effects of stubble burning in the neighbouring areas of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Western Uttar Pradesh.

Such proposal doesn’t reflect towards best practices of governance. That a government foresees a crisis, sits idle till it dawns on the city and then takes what has been named as ‘emergency measures’, definitely doesn’t illustrate for good governance. How can a government foresee a weather emergency and put people on notice for using private transport especially given the poor state of public transport. The advance notice is for the scheme, which was implemented two times earlier in 2016 and then abandoned, as there was no agreement among experts on pollution having come down despite the normal traffic having been thrown haywire.

The mammoth cricket stadium at the Feroze Shah Kotla complex, which will shortly be named after one of the greatest lovers of the game Arun Jaitley, always did not wear the present elegant look. It’s only about a decade back, with Jaitley at the helm of the Delhi & District Cricket Association (DDCA), that the cricket ground was saved from losing its international venue status.

For several decades since its founding sometime in the early 1940s this stadium bore a very Spartan look. Then functionaries of the DDCA could never raise sufficient funds nor the wherewithal to build a new stadium at the site. The things decayed in a manner that the DDCA was put on notice about holding matches on this ground. It was only after Jaitley came at the helm that the fortunes of the ground changed.

In the 1930s, the British started to build the capital city of New Delhi. As they built the city, the British also scouted for a ground for the imperial sport of cricket. Till then the cricket hub of the city was at colonial Roshanara Club in North Delhi. Thus, in a part of the ruins of the Feroze Shah Kotla, just beyond Delhi Gate of the Walled City was built Willingdon Pavilion, where the offices of the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) shifted base.

Adjacent to the cricket stadium was built a soccer ground, which today is known as Ambedkar Stadium. Since the soccer body – Delhi Soccer Association, did not have the means to take the stadium on lease, its ownership always remained with the Municipal Corporation. However, the cricket ground was transferred to the DDCA on 99-year lease.