Delhi Voters Ready for Change

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People walk past a screen in central Delhi counting down hours to Delhis assembly elections, Dec. 3.

Until five years ago, Manjula Meenj, a 36-year-old mother to two children, had to walk to a water pump a few kilometers from her two-room house in a south Delhi slum to get water for drinking, bathing and washing clothes. There was usually a long line at he hand pump as it was shared by sixty families. Once Ms. Meenj saw a pregnant woman faint while waiting for water in the sweltering heat.

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Manjula Meenj.

Then a couple of years ago the local representative of the Congress party, got water taps installed in every lane of her slum.

This has made my life easier, says Ms. Meenj, a migrant from the western state of Bihar, who says she will vote for the incumbent Congress party when Delhi votes Wednesday. A few yards away from Ms. Meenjs house lives Ashok, a 32-year-old, who goes by only one name and has been living in the area for more than a decade. He says that he has little faith in the promises of any of the three contesting parties the ruling Congress party, its rival, the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party and the fledgling Aam Aadmi Party, or common mans party. Its all noise. We all know it, he says about political promises to slash electricity prices, stop corruption and make the city safer. While many people say they will vote for the Congress party and its chief minister Sheila Dikshita growing number of Delhis citizens think it is time for a change. Sanjay Joshi, a 26-year-old, auto rickshaw driver, says he wants to try a new party. Its been almost fifteen years, since they have been in power, he said. Has the Congress done enough?

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Sanjay Joshi.

Mr. Joshi says that he still has to pay the police bribe money to be able to park his three-wheeled vehicle even though the closes parking spot he can find is a kilometer away from his one-room home. Mr. Joshi thinks giving the Aam Aadmi Party a chance will be a good jolt for the Congress party which he believes has become lazy and slow.

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Congress party officials say their partyhas developed infrastructure and created jobs during its time in power in the capital region and voters should vote for them if they want more. Still, many in Delhis crowded slums and leafy neighborhoods seem to support the AAP, which was born late last year and is led by people with little or no history in politics. According to a survey conducted by Lokniti, a research program of the New Delhibased think tank Center for the Study of Developing Societies, 47% of those surveyed think the Aam Aadmi Party was a strong contender in the elections. The same survey placed the partys leader, Arvind Kejriwal, as the most preferred candidate for the chief ministerial post in Delhi. There are even some voters, like 53-year-old Sadhna Harneja, who are charmed merely by the way Kejriwal presents himself. Ms. Harneja who lives in Pitam Pura, in western Delhi says Mr. Kejriwal, a 45-year-old bespectacled former engineer and tax official, looks like he cares. The others, she says, are simply politicians biting into peoples pockets. Still the AAPs decision not to ally with either the ruling Congress party or the BJP, which are expected to split most of the vote, is leading some voters to believe that in the quest for change, their vote could just go waste. What if they dont win absolute majority? My vote to them will be useless, worries 61year-old Ranvir Sharma, a resident of Dwarka, in western Delhi. Follow India Real Time on Twitter @WSJIndia. Follow Aditi @A4iti.