NEW DELHI, Feb 2: In the fray on a BJP ticket, Manjinder Singh Sirsa is credited with ending the Congress’ domination in the Rajouri Garden seat with his victory in the 2013 Delhi assembly polls and wresting the constituency from the ruling AAP in the 2017 bypoll.
Locked in a triangular battle with the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the upcoming Delhi assembly polls, Sirsa, 52, is contesting from the same seat and is confident of emerging victorious for the third time.
“After winning, my focus will be to ensure the supply of potable water to people living in the constituency and make its roads better and cleaner,” two-time MLA Sirsa told PTI when asked about his priorities if he is elected from the seat.
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“The biggest problem in this constituency is that people are getting dirty water. The second problem is broken and dirty roads.
“Garbage is scattered all over the constituency. Cable wires hanging everywhere is another big problem here,” he said.
Sirsa added that the Rajouri Garden seat should be included in the central government’s Smart City project.
The seat had been with the Congress since 1993 till Sirsa defeated its candidate Dhanwanti Chandela with a significant margin of votes as a Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) candidate in the 2013 assembly polls. The Congress has failed to win the seat since then.
The battle in this assembly constituency has become interesting in the run-up to the Delhi polls as Sirsa will once again cross swords with ruling AAP’s sitting MLA Dhanwanti Chandela after a gap of 12 years. She joined AAP in 2019 after quitting the Congress.
The BJP candidate will also be taking on Dharampal Chandela, the Congress candidate from the seat. A total of eight candidates, including Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) nominee Shashi Prabha, are in the fray from the Rajouri Garden assembly constituency.
Both Sirsa and Dhanwanti Chandela figure in the list of five wealthiest candidates with their assets pegged at Rs 248.85 crore and Rs 109.90 crore respectively, according to a report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).
The 70-member Delhi Assembly will go to polls on February 5 and the counting of votes will take place on February 8.
Sirsa, who joined the BJP in December 2019 after quitting the SAD, has contested from the Rajouri Garden assembly seat three times and emerged victorious twice.
After winning the 2013 assembly polls, he lost the seat to AAP’s Jarnail Singh in the 2015 elections while contesting as a SAD candidate.
In the 2017 bypoll, Sirsa once again won the Rajouri Garden seat, defeating Congress candidate Meenakshi Chandela by over 15,000 votes and pushing AAP’s Harjeet Singh to the third position.
The bypoll was necessitated due to AAP sitting MLA Jarnail Singh vacating the seat to contest the Punjab assembly elections in 2017.
Sirsa made his debut in electoral politics in 2007 by contesting the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) election as a SAD candidate and emerging victorious.
Sirsa, a BJP national secretary at present, has served as the president of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee and its general secretary in the past. (PTI)
