Sanjay Kumar, the cluster's pradhan, told TOI that Kushma's candidature is expected to help BJP. "The votes will get split between AAP, Congress and her; and BJP will benefit from this."
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NEW DELHI: BJP-Akali candidate Manjinder Sirsa has declared assets of over Rs 100 crore. Kushma Devi doesn't understand what that means. She says she can't visualize money beyond a few hundred rupees. Worth just Rs 3,000, she is perhaps Delhi's poorest candidate. The 37-year-old works as a domestic help in four houses and entered the fray as an Independent from R K Puram only after borrowing Rs 100 to buy a form.
Her one-point agenda is to reverse the pathetic conditions in the capital's Nanakpura's Shri Ram JJ Slum cluster: Even basic facilities like sanitation and proper water supply are a luxury for those living here. Water pipelines were laid and streetlights erected only last week, but there's no connection in either. "Development has never reached our area," says Kushma, who is fighting on a 'torch' symbol. "Even if I don't win, at least, I will know I tried to make our lives better."
Sanjay Kumar, the cluster's pradhan, told TOI that Kushma's candidature is expected to help BJP. "The votes will get split between AAP, Congress and her; and BJP will benefit from this."
Some residents in her slum echo Sanjay, saying they are convinced that BJP has propped her up to cut into the Congress and AAP votes in this Valmiki-majority area. "Nobody in the area knows that she is contesting and hasn't even started campaigning," says Vipin Kumar, a local. Neither does Kushma's brother Dheeraj, a vendor.
Kushma refutes the allegations, saying some workers of the mainstream parties, who are banking on the slum vote bank, are spreading these rumours. "I works in four houses and get so tired at the end of the day that I am yet to begin campaigning," she says. Kushma has taken off this Sunday and Monday to reach out to the people. Apart from her slum, she will campaign in Ambedkar Basti of RK Puram constituency.
The erstwhile Congress government had promised to relocate the Nankpuri slum-dwellers into flats, but it never materialized. "We have been living in such pathetic conditions for all our lives and the government as well the opposition have ignored us," Kushma says, adding that her family is hopeful that the slum will this time choose her for a change. And if her dream comes true, may be, her four children who stay away from her because her shanty is too tiny will return for good.
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