Akalis optimistic of tipping the ‘balance’ in their favour

This is the first Assembly election that Shiromani Akali Dal will be fighting it with their own symbol, ‘balance’, in Delhi, or anywhere outside Punjab. For the Akalis, who have never won a single seat in the Delhi Assembly, it is a season of hope.

Akalis are fighting the election in an alliance with the BJP for four seats — Shahdara, Adarsh Nagar, Jungpura and Rajouri Garden. Akali candidate Avtaar Singh Hit would be fighting the election from Rajouri Garden for the first time ever. The electoral history of the area is not in their favour. Akalis fought twice in 1998 and 2003 from here and lost both times. In all the three Assembly elections, in 1993, 1998 and 2003, Congress candidate Ajay Makan had a clean sweep.

The vote margin was as high as 24,000 in 2003 between Makan and Akali candidate Sarabjeet Singh. “I’ve been working for the last 30 years for the Sikh population of Delhi as a member of the Delhi Sikh gurudwara committee. I am well-prepared,” Hit told Newsline. He faces old-timer Dayananad Chandilla in the area.

“In past, I have won from the area as an independent candidate several times. Wth Congress support, there is no way I can lose,” Chandilla said.

In Jangpura, an interesting fight is on the cards with two-time Congress MLA Tarvinder Marwah facing a much younger Akali candidate Manjinder Singh Sirsa. Marwah had won the last elections with a difference of over 20,000 votes against the Akali candidate.

Sirsa, meanwhile, is a sitting BJP councillor from Punjabi Bagh who has managed to negotiate an Akali seat despite the BJP’s embargo on giving tickets to sitting councillors. Sirsa runs a leather goods business from Sirsa in Haryana and had declared as assets worth nearly Rs 100 crore during nomination.

... contd.