Delhi elections are being fought on the “model of development”. Matiala constituency nestled in West Delhi is gearing up to witness tough triangular political fight among Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP's) candidate Gulab Singh, Rajesh Gehlot of the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) and Congress candidate Sumesh Shokeen. Matiala is a constituency of hundreds of unathorised colonies and also boasts of world class 'Dwarka' sub city having total number of voters 1,46, 92, 136.
The Pioneer visited in the constituency where people spoke about their grievances on poor drainage system, pathetic roads, less water supply, transportation, traffic, few Delhi Government schools, garbage disposal system which are challenging the AAP's development narrative.
Interestingly, in Matiala, people of different economic, social and political background live, instance - Kakrola, the village which is having a deep history associated with Patuadi, Dwarka sectors where Central government employees from across India settled and people, living in unathorised colonies who are happy with AAP and BJP both having double advantage of free electricity /water and ongoing registration process turning their property values in Lakh overnight.
However, a rift between the ruling AAP and the BJP is always visible on the civic issues, Matiala people face challenges everyday to deal with garbage disposal problem. "Garbage is big issue here as both MCD and BJP fight each other, corporation employees do not work at ground and we have to hire private garbage collector," said a Dwarka resident, Radhakrishan who lives in Delhi Development Authority (DDA) flats.
Matiala residents also questioned Kejriwal for AAP's effort to combat air pollution. "No government is putting genuine effort in dealing with air pollution problem be it Congress, AAP and BJP. Why tress is being cut and what AAP has done for road dust, main cause of pollution," said Ananya, an employee of Central Ministry.
Importantly, Matiala people deal everyday traffic problem during peak hours. "There are no adequate exit routes from Dwarka resulting in heavy traffic congestion every morning and evening on Dwarka Palam road," said a government employee, residing in Dwarka Sector 6.
Grievances of Matiala voters are related with Public Works Department (PWD) and MCD where people are going out of the way and joined hand with self-help groups for the maintenance of pavements in a bid to avoid accidents.
"Broken pavements may cause accidents; the area is well connected to highways, the difference between service lane and main roads and sewage lines should be visible, no government machineries visit here," said a resident near Dwarka Metro station.
Mansa Ram Park, another area in Matiala where rainy season halts the lives of the poor is beset with poor drainage system and water network. Many of the area residents said, neither AAP government nor BJP ruled civic agencies have doen anything in this regard.
While the BJP and AAP are fighting it out, the Congress candidate Sumesh Shokeen sounded confident of his win, "I will be back with majority as I have done alot for the unauthorized colonies during my tenure as the area MLA.
Accusing his counterpart Gulab Singh, the AAP candidate, Shokeen said that there were 101 unathorised colonies here in Shiela Dixit regime. "With DSIDC, we worked for these colonies and brought pipeline network here," said Congress candidate mentioning about two new Kendriya Vidyalaya in Matiala which he inaugurated.
Measuring both AAP and Congress in one weighting machine, Rajesh Gehlot, the BJP candidate who had won this seat in 2013 elections, said that both have played well on unathorised issues. " Why Congress remained silent on the issue while ruled for fifteen years in Delhi and AAP has set a limitation as in Matiala, no progress has been made under AAP rule," Gehlot said.
Meanwhile according to Election Commission of India (ECI), Matiala votes will be polled at 13,750 polling stations which would be set up at 2,689 centers.
In the last election held in 2015, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Gulab Singh had won the seat. In 2013, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Rajesh Gehlot had won the seat and prior to that in 2008, Congress had won the seat and Suresh was the elected as the MLA. Of the total number of voters in Delhi are 80,55,686 male voters and 66,35,635 female voters. A total of 815 third gender voters have also been registered for voting this year. 55,823 Divyang (persons with disabilities) voters are also expected to vote this year. 489 Non resident Indians (NRI) voters would also vote this year. Of the total 11,556 service voters, 9,820 are male voters.
