In 1979, under the mild English sun, Chetan Chauhan played the innings of his life — a record-breaking first-wicket partnership of 213 runs with Sunil Gavaskar.

Twenty years later, in the fierce Delhi summer, Chetan Chauhan, the politician, is batting for another team, and hoping his luck pays off this time too.

Chauhan is the BJP candidate for East Delhi, an area that voted overwhelmingly for Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit’s son Sandeep Dikshit in 2004 Lok Sabha elections. But this time, Chauhan thinks his rival is in for a surprise.

“He has hardly set foot in the area. Besides the Metro, most new developments here started only three months ago,” he says. “He has been absconding for the last five years.”

But won’t Dikshit’s lineage help him? “No”, Chauhan says, “People vote for the candidate, not his mother.” Besides, Chauhan himself isn’t lacking in star power.

As his padyatra passes through the narrow bylanes of Shakarpur, men step out to garland the ‘national hero’, while women peek out from the balconies above.

When Chauhan looks up, they gaze admiringly at the former cricketer, who in a blue-yellow tracksuit looks more like a coach than neta.

Chauhan, who claims to have his ear to the ground, says, “There is tremendous anger in this constituency. There are 6-8 hours of power cuts and no sewage line.” But the lanes he is campaigning through have open sewers running on either side.

The crowd, noticeably excited in the middle-class school block locality in Shakarpur, thins out as Chauhan crosses the basti next to the highway.

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