Caste matters in a metro like New Delhi too

New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (APP) of Arvind Kejriwal claims to have nominated candidates of the people’s choice, but it may still find itself on the receiving end. This is because caste still plays major role in at least 20 out of 70 assembly constituencies of Delhi.

These constituencies are based in outer and rural Delhi. Three sides of the city are surrounded by Haryana and one side (east) by Uttar Pradesh. Voters in these areas often prefer candidates from their own community rather than getting influenced by other factors that bother the city and the country.

Out of the 364 villages in Delhi, 225 are dominated by the Jat community and 70 villages by the Gujjars community. The Yadavs community have majority in 35 villages.

The Jat community generally is the deciding factor in at least eight areas: Mehrauli, Mundka, Rithala, Nangloi, Matiala, Najafgarh and Bijwasan. The Gujjar community have power over Badarpur, Tughlakabad, Sangam Vihar, Gonda, Gokulpuri, Karawal Nagar and Okhla.

Jats, who control politics in neighbouring state, Haryana, comprises about 10 per cent of the total Delhi voters while the Gujjars constitute seven per cent votes. Scheduled Castes have 17 per cent and Muslims make up for 12 per cent of Delhi voters. Punjabis, who lead Delhi politics, have nine per cent and the Sikh community has a total vote share of four per cent. The Vaish (trader) community has eight per cent of votes.

Also, there are a large number of people belonging to Poorvanchal (eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar) who call Delhi as their home. They rise above the caste consideration and vote for the say of the region, especially since few years ago, Sheila Dikshit, Chief Minister of Delhi, blamed the migrants from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar for the problems occurring in Delhi.

Both the Congress party and BJP have managed to keep the caste and community factors within limits by nominating adequate number of candidates from the communities from their constituencies of influence and keeping regional players where these communities are in majority.