Called the world’s biggest elections, it is said India showcases its diversity through its elections. And while it is a celebration of democracy, it is also a moment to face the harsh reality of what the marginalised communities go through every day.

In the National Capital Delhi, people whose houses were demolished last year say they have given up hope and would prefer selecting “NOTA” or “None Of The Above” option.

In a small dimly lit room, Lakshman Singh is sitting with his wife and a young daughter. His wife, who is a Muslim, was to celebrate Eid, but celebration feels far-fetched at the moment.

Singh, 46 is the resident of a slum in Delhi’s Tughlakabad area, which faced massive demolitions last year. thousands of people were rendered homeless as around 1500-4000 houses were reportedly demolished. Claims of the exact number of houses razed differ as the government and civil society’s share different estimates.

Speaking to The Citizen, Singh said life has not been the same ever since the demolitions.

“I have had no stable job for the past year as I am running around the court regarding this case. I am taking care of the entire demolition case, and it became difficult to get justice and keep a job because my boss was not understanding my situation,” he said.

Singh used to live in Bangali Colony, which was located near the historical 14th Century Tughlaqabad Fort. The Bangali colony is home to people who had migrated mostly from West Bengal and Bihar.

The area has a mixed population of Hindus and Muslims. According to the people, more than 2,000 houses are still under the threat of demolition, and if carried out it will affect close to 20,000 people.

In January 2023, the residents received a notice by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to evict their houses. Despite a pending case and pleas from the people, the ASI and Delhi Development Authority (DDA) demolished thousands of homes in May 2023.

The Citizen had reported when the families in the area had received a notice to evacuate their homes and when the houses were razed to the ground.

Now, with elections approaching, the same politicians who had initially ignored the people pleading them to save their homes, are knocking on their doors for votes.

At the moment, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Ramesh Bidhuri is the sitting Member of Parliament from the area. Tughlaqabad comes in the South Delhi region. Bidhuri has held his seat since 2014.

Five of the six MPs who were dropped by the BJP this time are: Harsh Vardhan, Meenakshi Lekhi, Pravesh Sahib Singh, and Ramesh Bidhuri, who were all holding their seats since 2014. The BJP has fielded fresh faces this time. With the two candidates announced on Wednesday, the BJP has named all contenders on the seven Delhi seats.

Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri has been fielded from South Delhi; Bansuri Swaraj, lawyer, and daughter of former Union Minister Sushma Swaraj, from New Delhi; trade association leader Praveen Khandelwal from Chandni Chowk; former south Delhi mayor Kamaljeet Sehrawat from West Delhi; former East Delhi mayor Harsh Malhotra from East Delhi seat; former North Delhi mayor Yogendra Chandolia from North West; and actor-turned-politician Manoj Tiwari from North East Delhi seat.

But for residents of Tughlagabad Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, who is a relative of Ramesh Bidhuri, will be of no help. However, they added that no support is expected from other parties as well.

“When our houses got demolished last year and we approached the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader, who was in the opposition, he abused us and shooed us away. Today the irony is he is coming and asking for votes from us,” Singh alleged.

The AAP, on the other hand, said that the fact that the BJP changed six of the seven sitting MPs was an admission that they were “ineffective”. “The BJP has changed 6 out of 7 candidates. This is an admission by the BJP that their MPs were either corrupt or ineffective. In either case, BJP should apologise to the people of Delhi for wasting their five years,” the AAP said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said all the seven BJP candidates in Delhi have worked with the party organisation. “I feel proud that the party leadership chose all seven candidates with strong organisational backgrounds. All these candidates are close to the party workers in their area. We will fight this election with a positive agenda and will win all seven seats,” Sachdeva said.

The AAP is contesting the Delhi seats in alliance with the Congress. The AAP has already announced its candidates on the four seats that the party will contest: East Delhi, South Delhi, New Delhi and West Delhi.

The Congress which will contest the remaining three seats: North East, Chandni Chowk and North West, is yet to announce its candidates. While the alliance is being called a strategic move, for people who have lost their houses, trust has become a heavy factor.

Renu, who is in her late 40s is still reeling with the loss of losing her house. “I am saying one thing openly; my vote will go to ‘NOTA’. I do not have any hope from any of these politicians. All of them are the same and abandoned us at the time of need. I wanted to say so much to them when I saw them rallying. The audacity these politicians have makes me angry,” she said.

Renu, who has a family of nine living in one room, said she had to take out a loan to rent their house. All their savings were used to build the old house, and she is in debt now. “Every day the debt collectors knocked on our doors and it became so unbearable that my son tried to kill himself,” she said, trying to hold back tears.

“Nothing matters in the end because our house is gone and so is our life. Everything we bult is gone,” she said.

Savita Kashyap, whose house was also demolished, averred the same sentiments. Renting a small room, Renu said she was ready to come in front of the bulldozers and die. Singh, who was her neighbour, had stopped her from doing it.

“To die is better than living like this. We built that house for 15-20 years and within 20 minutes they took it away. These cruel politicians, this media that did not help us has made us hopeless. I don’t care about elections anymore,” Kashyap said.

There is gloominess and helplessness as most of the people are compromising by living in small and suffocated rooms as the case is ongoing. “I have had to assure a lot of people to not leave because it would mean that the case would never be taken seriously,” Singh said.

But to see that even the case is not moving forward is leaving everyone hopeless. Hajeema Begum, 60 also lost her house she took 15 years to build in the demolition. Sitting in a small room with no electricity, Begum said all parties have become the same in her eyes.

“Who do we vote for has become a meaningless question. All of them are the same, but when it comes to asking for votes they come begging. The AAP leader who abused us when we begged him to save our homes had told us he did not ask us to vote for him, but he is now shamelessly asking for votes. What happened now,” she said.

The 60-year-old also said that on top of paying Rs. 6000 as rent, she has to pay the water and electricity bill separately.

This was echoed by others as well. “What free electricity and water were they talking about? For those who are on rent, even living is not free,” Kashyap added.

Most of the demolished houses in Tughlakabad were owned by people, but most of them are now living on rent.

In 2023, multiple places in Delhi including Mehrauli, Jamia, Fatehpur Beri, Green Park among others witnessed massive demolitions. Many reports suggested that many demolitions took place ahead of G20, which was hosted by India last year.

The woes of the people did not end with demolition. Despite the Delhi High Court ordering the ASI and other authorities to provide rehabilitation for the families, the people say that none of them got any.

“Our homes are gone now. Our fight has come down to compensation. Even though, we are sure that is never coming. But we need to have some kind of hope,” Kashyap added.

Even as people were upset with AAP over their negligence in the demolitions, things started turning after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest.

Singh said that the moment Kejriwal got arrested, resentment towards BJP increased. “It is not good. They jailed a sitting Chief Minister. If AAP comes to power in our area by chance, I think it would only be because of this change in sentiment.”

Renu said that while she would not support any political party, the arrest of Kejriwal did come as a shock.

Meanwhile, amid Kejriwal’s arrest the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) announced that the election of Mayor and Deputy Mayor will be held on April 26. It added that the Corporation House meeting has been called on 26th April for elections.

“The Ordinary April (2024) meeting of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi will be held on Friday, April 26, 2024 at 11.00 am in Aruna Asaf Ali Auditorium, A-Block, 4th Floor, Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Civic Centre, Jawahar Lal Nehru Marg, New Delhi. Election of Mayor and Deputy Mayor will also be held in this meeting of the corporation. It is issued by order of the Mayor,” it wrote in a statement.

Last year, AAP's candidate Shelly Oberoi was unanimously elected as mayor after BJP candidate Shikha Rai withdrew her nomination. AAP's Aaley Mohammad Iqbal also got another term as deputy mayor after BJP candidate Soni Pal withdrew her nomination.

On April 9, Delhi HC rejected Kejriwal's plea challenging his arrest by the ED and remand order passed by the trial court. In a major setback to the Delhi CM, the high court held that Kejriwal's arrest and remand by the ED was "not illegal".

After this, Kejriwal has now moved to the Supreme Court against the Delhi HC order rejecting his plea challenging his arrest in Delhi's excise policy irregularities case.

Delhi votes in the general election on May 25, and the deadline for filing nominations is May 6. Yet, the Congress, which has entered into a seat-sharing deal with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi, has not announced candidates for Chandni Chowk, North West and North East — the three Lok Sabha seats which have come into its kitty from the seven parliamentary constituencies in the Capital.

The AAP has fielded Somnath Bharti from New Delhi, Mahabal Mishra from West Delhi, Kuldeep Kumar Monu from East Delhi and Sahi Ram Pehelwan from South Delhi. Mishra, who was earlier in the Congress, joined AAP last year.

The Congress showed solidarity with AAP in the I.N.D.I.A. bloc rally held at Ramlila Maidan last month especially after Kejriwal as well as former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, were arrested in separate cases by the Enforcement Directorate.

Workers from the Delhi units of the Congress and AAP dominated the ground in equal numbers, keeping their differences aside. Reiterating that the two parties have come together to “save democracy” and defeat the “dictatorial” BJP, leaders from both the parties continue to affirm that they have each other’s back.

The alliance has also left the voters baffled. “It is funny how they were at each other’s throat back in 2014 and are now allies,” Singh said.

Rajya Sabha MP and AAP leader Sanjay Singh, in an interview with ‘The Hindu’, had said that the Congress and AAP partnership will be a success, winning all seven seats in the Capital. “Wherever the Congress is contesting, our workers will campaign for them and, I am sure, they will do the same for us,” he said.

Asha, 36 who is also a resident of Tughlakabad is now struggling to make ends meet. “We did not even feel like celebrating Eid this time. It is going to be one year that we lost our homes and with elections coming, we do not expect much from anyone,” she said.

A few of the residents, to raise some hope amongst the people, became foot soldiers with Congress. They are now going around in areas where either notice has been served or demolitions were done to raise awareness about elections as well as help them in their case.

Singh, who is leading this said that he realised that while no political party or leader will help them, it also became imperative to do something.

“I had gone to Congress and also met the Delhi Congress Committee president Anil Chaudhary who assured us all help, which is why I decided to advocate on behalf of them,” he said.

He along with Asha are now trying to help others going through the same ordeal as them. “When I saw that poor people like us have nowhere to go, it made me upset. I did not want to waste my time moping and so I decided to approach them myself,” he said.

Asha said that while she does not support any party, she understands the pain of losing one’s house, which is why she decided to join Singh.

“We do not support BJP and have no hope in AAP. Congress is the only party that has at least talked and given us some assurance. Although, we know that in the end nothing is going to happen. But it is still better than doing nothing,” Asha said.

The land where once houses stood and families lived their lives, celebrated festivals together and where memories were made now stands surrounded by brick walls and wires. It is now barren with a pile of mud overlooking the fort.

In the lanes of Tughlagabad, thousands still grieve the loss they have incurred.

“Nobody will know the pain of losing a house more than us. How much effort it takes for a poor person, who works in the house of those with mansions, to build a house and then lose it all. Life has no meaning and we are living only for our children,” Renu said sitting in her small rented room.

For Kashyap, finding a job has also become a burden. “I lost my job because I could not go to work post demolition and now, I have no money. Only I know how I manage to pay rent,” she added.

The BJP won all seven seats in both 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the party received 56.6% of the votes, while the AAP had a vote share of 18.11% and the Congress got 22.51% votes.

Last time, the BJP, Congress, and the AAP were in a triangular contest. This time, the AAP and the Congress are contesting together as part of the I.N.D.I.A. bloc.

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NIKITA JAIN