Capital challenge

BJP hopes Modi's popularity will help it beat the CongressAAP alliance

- MOHIT SHARMA

Bansuri Swaraj, the BJP’s candidate from the New Delhi Lok Sabha constituency, is a natural on the campaign trail.

At an election meeting in south Delhi’s Sant Nagar, she instantly struck a chord with the crowd. Daughter of former Union minister Sushma Swaraj, Bansuri, 40, resembled her mother in attire, articulation and demeanour. Throughout her hourlong event at Sant Nagar, Bansuri, who is making her electoral debut, mingled with the crowd, reminding people of her late mother and the popularity she enjoyed in New Delhi constituency, which will vote on May 25. “If Delhi is the heart of Bharat, New Delhi is the heartbeat,” she told THE WEEK.

The BJP's decision to field the lawyer had taken many by surprise. She entered politics as co-convener of the Delhi BJP’s legal cell about a year ago. And she was chosen over Meenakshi Lekhi, the incumbent MP and a Union minister, perhaps to cash in on Sushma's enduring appeal.

Not everyone agrees, though. “Votes are cast in the name and symbol of political parties and not so much on the candidate,” said Sanjay Kumar, co-director of Lokniti, a research programme of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies. “In this particular case, there would be a positive feeling among voters that Bansuri is the daughter of Sushma Swaraj, who was a respected leader. Still, the bigger point is that she is contesting on a BJP ticket.”

Unlike in 2019, when Delhi witnessed a triangular fight between the BJP, the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party, this time it will be a twoway contest as the Congress and the AAP have allied. The AAP is contesting from four seats and the Congress from three.