Awaiting development, will Seemapuri favour AAP again?

Located in east Delhi along the border with Uttar Pradesh, will Seemapuri Assembly constituency (reserved for SCs), which elected Aam Aadmi Party's Rajendra Pal Gautam with over 63 per cent votes in the 2015 polls, go in the party's favour again?


Predominantly populated by Muslims and low-income migrant families who work as daily wage labourers, Seemapuri's border location makes it a centre for many criminal activities like pick-pocketing, chain snatching, mobile snatching, murders and many others as the criminals can easily hop over the state line to escape jurisdiction.

It encompasses Nand Nagri, Sundar Nagri, GTB Enclave, New Seema Puri, Dilshad Garden and others, a mix of well-developed colonies, like the Dilshad Colony - inhabited by salaried and high-income people - as well as the slum areas.

However, the area's overall condition is not good.

People face an acute crisis of water and electricity supply as the area has many slums and irregular houses, while heaps of garbage can be seen on the road due to the many scrap yards.

The area also faces lots of traffic jams because the roads have become narrow due to illegal encroachment. There are many carpenters and furniture shops and they use the road to store and display their stuff. Absence of traffic police makes the situation even worse.

The area has three main hospitals - the Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, the Swami Dayanand Hospital and The Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS) to cater to the healthcare needs of the people. There is Mohalla clinic near the bus depot, but it remains closed most of the time and is used as a resting area for vagrants, smoking or smelling sprit.

The Dilshad Garden bus depot, which is the hub of many DTC routes, makes it possible for people from all walks of life to commute to work. There is also a metro station (Red Line).

The area was recently in the news for all the wrong reasons, as violence erupted in the area during anti-CAA protests. Over a dozen illegal migrants were reportedly involved in the violent protest.

While the Congress has fielded Veer Singh Dhingan and the BJP has to announce its candidate, the Aam Aadmi Party has repeated Gautam, who defeated BJP's Karmavir last time, and it will be interesting to see whether the constituency's people have approved his work during the last five years, given that the AAP made many promises to the people last time, but the area has hardly seen any development.IANS