Will the work done speak for itself in Janakpuri? AAP MLA thinks so

Janakpuri Assembly constituency in south west Delhi will this time see a contest between sitting Aam Aadmi Party legislator Rajesh Rishi and BJP's Ashish Sood.

Rishi said he was confident of re-election due to the work done by the Kejriwal government. "We have full faith in the wisdom of the common man," he expressed.

BJP's Sood belongs to the Punjabi community, which dominates the Assembly seat. Refugees from Pakistan make for a majority of its population.

A BJP leader said that the issue of Citizenship Amendment Act could resonate with the constituency's voters.

The seat was traditionally a BJP bastion, with party stalwart Jagdish Mukhi getting elected continuously from the seat since the 1980s. However, the tide turned in 2015 when Rishi defeated the BJP candidate to enter the Assembly.

Janakpuri, a posh district, boasts of 'A' category residential area and is well-connected by Delhi Metro and road network. The segment has 173,907 votes, including 92,960 male and 80,939 female voters.

The seat includes the Janakpuri District Centre and a handicraft market in its vicinity.

The opposition Congress claims that parks in the segment are in bad shape and no good roads exist in the locality. The Congress is banking on the work done by the party governments in the past.
 

Congress aspirant Radhika Khera claimed that Rishi did nothing for the segment in the last five years.

"There are a lot of problems despite it being a posh locality -- sewage water seeping into houses, street lighting in Sitapuri ward and traffic jams. There is also the problem of unclean drinking water due to mixing of sewage, apart from a garbage dump at Dabri Mor," she said.

The constituency has four municipal wards of Sitapuri, Milapnagar, Janakpuri South and Janakpuri West.

As for the garbage problem, the AAP maintains that the issue falls in the domain of the municipal corporation that is run by the BJP.