Will ‘giant killer’ Rakhi strike again?

The Mangolpuri Assembly segment rose to fame during the last Assembly polls as a ‘giant killer’ emerged on the political horizon of the Capital.

Aam Aadmi Party’s Rakhi Bidlan, one of the youngest legislators in the fifth Delhi Assembly, defeated four-time MLA and former Minister Raj Kumar Chauhan by over 10,500 votes and went on to become the only female face in the short-lived Arvind Kejriwal Cabinet.

However, a few months later, by the Lok Sabha election, the ‘Modi wave’ had taken over and she lost out to the Bahartiya Janata Party’s Udit Raj by an overwhelming 1,06,802 votes.

Ms. Bidlan, who was the Women and Child Development Minister in the 49-day AAP Government, however, is back in the reckoning and she is pitched against the BJP’s Surijeet Kumar in this elections.

Mr. Kumar concedes that Ms. Bidlan is her principal rival despite Raj Kumar Chauhan of the Congress contesting again. “She is my main contender, but I am confident of winning this time round,” he said.

With the constituency largely been dominated by slum and unauthorised clusters, the basic issues listed by the voters in the constituency in North-West Delhi include water scarcity, power bills, rising prices and access to other basic amenities. Another important issue that concerns the voters include the fear of being evicted from their slums.

A total of 1,65,962 voters are registered in the constituency that witnessed a high voting percentage with 69.73 per cent of the electorate exercising its franchise last elections.