What is the option? We can’t vote for the BJP,” says Sukhpal Singh. “The BJP councilor has also not done anything. At least Kejriwal’s schemes are benefiting people.”

About 30 km away, in Shahabad-Mohammedpur in West Delhi’s Bijwasan, Gulshan Kumar, a safai karmachari with the municipality, sits with his friends beside a dug-up alley along the railway line. He laments about the acute water shortage during the summers and the lack of a railway overbridge, causing jams and endangering lives.

“Last summer I had to fetch water from a nearby crematorium,” he says angrily.

Yet, he too will vote for the AAP.

The open drain outside the chaupal at Nai Basti, a Dalit-dominated colony in South Delhi’s Deoli, is overflowing. (Express Photo)

“Yes, the MLA has not done enough work. But I had never imagined my children could go to good schools. The hospitals have become so clean and all medicines are available for free,” Gulshan Kumar says, remarking that the nearby government-run Indira Gandhi Hospital in Dwarka has “Italian marble” while the lobby has a “sofa”. “It is as good as any private hospital.”

With the Opposition successfully building a campaign around “threat to the Constitution” in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, all parties are trying hard to woo the community in Delhi.

Yet, in Dalit colonies in the Capital, the Constitution is not part of the electoral discourse. Very few, largely from the Jatav community, speak of the issue without being specifically asked about it. Poll conversations are largely centered around the AAP government’s schemes, and the promises made by the BJP and Congress in response.

In this Delhi battle that seems confined to the BJP and AAP, there are scattered Congress supporters. (Express Photo)

Gulshan and his friends speak in unison on why: “Constitution Toh sabne mil ke khatam kar diya. Ab jisse jo mil jaye (The parties have together demolished the Constitution. Now we look for what we can get from anyone).”

In Deoli’s Nai Basti Chaupal, the only one who brings up the issue of the Constitution is voting for the NDA. However, Kamal Singh clarifies, this is because the NDA candidate belongs to the same village as him.

The Deoli constituency is reserved for SCs, and the BJP has given it to its ally LJP led by Chirag Paswan.

But on the matter of the Constitution, Kamal Singh too has qualms regarding the BJP. “BJP politicians keep saying negative things about the Constitution off and on. This upsets the community.”

But, where the AAP is concerned, people seem willing to forgive the many failures of its MLAs – even on basic things like sewerage – with Kejriwal’s welfare schemes and sprucing up of schools and hospitals counting above everything, for a community that is used to being ignored in governance priorities.

But their numbers mean they can’t be treated similarly in elections. Out of Delhi’s 70 seats, for example, 12 are reserved for SCs and in as many as 18 more, Dalits are in sizeable numbers – making their support critical in who forms the government.

The BJP and Congress have even fielded Dalit candidates in non-reserved constituencies – the BJP in Matia Mahal and Ballimaran, the Congress in Narela – as a signal to the community.

In Shahabad-Mohammedpur, the overwhelming support for the AAP among the Dalit community rests as much on hospitals and free power and water, as free bus rides for women.

Aashu Kumar, 28, a percussionist with a jagrata band (which plays night long at Hindu religious functions), says: “The schools we studied in were so bad, but look at the schools now… If there is anyone who thinks about the poor , it is Kejriwal.”

“Had we gone to such schools… we wouldn’t be playing in jagratas,” Aashu adds.

Asha, an MCD worker who is a Valmiki, says: “I go to Dabri for work. I am saving so much money since bus rides became free. He (Kejriwal) is thinking about us.”

But aren’t other parties promising cash doles to women too? Asha says: “I don’t know whether I will get the Rs 2,100 that Kejriwal has promised (as part of the Mahila Samman Yojana). But I am sure I will never get it from Modi.”

In Deoli, Sumit Valmiki, 28, does not bat an eyelid declaring his support for the AAP even while slamming its outgoing MLA, whom the party has replaced this time.

“My aunt travels from Badarpur to Lodhi Road for a job that pays her just Rs 13,000 a month. How would that be possible without free bus rides? People who say they are supporting the BJP, I ask them to start paying power bills,” he says.

Others also express the apprehension that if the BJP comes to power, it will take away the AAP government’s benefits – a concern that Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself tried to assuage in one of his poll speeches.

Vishal Kumar, 30, reasons: “Modi cannot sustain Kejriwal’s schemes. He is ruling in so many states, if he gives them in one, he will have to in many. And then why should we trust Modi? He calls these benefits revris.”

Amid similar support for the AAP in Tughlaqabad’s Balmiki Mohalla, there are a few traditional BJP supporters. Ramesh Kumar, a government employee who also runs a grocery store, says the AAP’s freebies are “ruining the country”. “I am from the middle class. I get none of his freebies. And the free bus ride has meant that even to buy coriander leaves, women go to the Badarpur border. Men keep waiting at the bus stop,” he claims.

Posters attached to a cow. (Express Photo)

Here, the BJP’s additional challenge is familiarizing its candidate to the electorate. Its local heavyweight, Ramesh Bidhuri, has been shifted to Kalkaji to take on AAP Chief Minister Atishi. “People do not know BJP candidate Rohtas Bidhuri. To offset the popularity of AAP schemes, we needed a strong candidate like Ramesh Bidhuri here,” says a BJP worker, who is a Valmiki.

In this Delhi battle that seems confined to the BJP and AAP, there are scattered Congress supporters, such as Devinder Kumar, 62, a retired government employee.

One reason is the nostalgia for Sheila Dikshit’s regime, which comes up in conversations. “No one has done as much work for Delhi,” says Kumar, who also confesses to being a long-time Congress supporter. However, another reason is Congress candidate Devinder Sehrawat, who was earlier with the AAP. “He has done a lot of work. I will vote for him, whether he wins or not.”

In SC-reserved Kondli too, the BJP is facing candidate problems. Priyanka Gautam was an AAP councilor till a few months ago. “Now she is going door to door telling voters that the AAP has done nothing. Then what were you doing with them for the past five years?” says Vikas Kumar, a gig worker.

Pawan Kumar, 45, who belongs to the dominant Jatav community in the area like Vikas, says that in the seat, “the contest is between the AAP and Congress”.

He brings it back to the issue of the Constitution. “Nobody will vote for the BJP here. Look at how Amit Shah spoke about Ambedkar in Parliament. He gave us the Constitution and this is how you talk about him!”