A clutch of official documents and court orders in hand, Delhi urban development minister Saurabh Bharadwaj, in a press conference last week, accused the BJP-led Centre of “destroying people’s homes and rendering them homeless”. Within a few days, he, along with several other MLAs started visiting slum clusters and jhuggi jhopri colonies where notices of demolition had been pasted.

During one such visit on Wednesday, AAP MLA Dilip Pandey told the people living in the slums of Wazirpur Industrial Area that the BJP was using central bodies and agencies such as the Railways, Delhi Development Authority (DDA), and the Land and Development Office (L&DO) to remove slums because it knows that people living in jhuggis vote for the AAP.

With political parties sharpening their attacks before the Lok Sabha elections, the AAP is hoping to retain its hold on a constituency of voters that it believes has been its biggest support base since 2013, when it contested its first election.

Battling the BJP on several fronts, from allegations of corruption in the Delhi excise policy case to a raging war with the bureaucracy in the state, the AAP has decided to take up the issue that hits home for a large number of Delhi residents. According to a Lokniti survey conducted on the eve of the 2020 Assembly elections, 61% of the poorest voters in Delhi voted for the AAP. This, however, was a drop from the 66% in 2015.

In fact, it was the BJP that made the most gains among the poorest voters and won 33% of their vote, an increase of 12% compared to 2015. According to the survey, the data suggested that the highest gain in the segment may have come from JJ clusters and slums, possibly because of the AAP’s jahan jhuggi wahin makaan promise. This also explains Delhi BJP’s targeting of the AAP on the issue.

Hours after Bharadwaj and Atishi started their yatras in two clusters, the BJP blamed the ruling party in the National Capital for the condition that the residents found themselves in. State BJP President Virendra Sachdeva was quick to point to the in-situ slum redevelopment clusters of Kathputli Colony, Kalkaji, and Jailerwala Bagh “How many houses has Arvind Kejriwal given to the poor during his tenure?” he asked.

Sachdeva went on to list the benefits that people had got because of the Centre. “Modi government is continuously providing free ration to 72 lakh people in Delhi. It has provided around two lakh free Ujjwala gas connections and provided Sunidhi employment loans to lakhs of poor. On the contrary, despite the promise, Kejriwal has neither allowed the benefits of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana to reach the real poor living in rented houses nor given them free electricity and water connections,” he said.

The BJP’s attempt is to highlight not just the housing crisis but also the loophole that those living on rent do not get the benefit of free power and water as landlords do not pass them on to the tenants, a sour point for the poorest of the poor in the city.

The AAP, meanwhile, is focusing on turning its biggest weakness — that the elected government does not have the power of land and police — into its strength on the issue. “All homes that are being demolished are on land owned by the Centre. The Delhi government owns very little land; most of it is with DDA and Railways. If they are the ones who remove the homes of people, they also have to be the ones to provide alternative living arrangements. The people of Delhi know and understand this,” said a senior party leader.

Bharadwaj, meanwhile, has accused the Centre of removing even those houses that were built before January 1, 2006, and are protected under Supreme Court guidelines. “The houses near Sundar Nursery were part of this list but the court was misled. We have documentary proof of this. The Centre wants to empty the houses irrespective of whether it is legal or not. We vehemently oppose this and our fight for the people of Delhi will continue,” he said.

With the Ayodhya Ram Mandir being at the centre of political discourse in the country — the Delhi government has also announced a three-day Ramlila in the city starting Saturday — the AAP is keen on bringing the slum demolition into focus.

“A lot of people living in these areas are misled into believing that we are carrying out the demolition. In Sundar Nursery, for example, the people were told it was the MCD which was razing their houses. This is why these visits are important. We want to tell people that MCD has been ordered to send machines, the orders are coming from the Centre and cannot be disobeyed. Residents of these areas are happy with AAP and the BJP wants to take that away,” said a party leader.

Another survey by Lokniti CSDS conducted in October last year said that while 52.4% of residents of slum clusters and unauthorised colonies were fully satisfied or somewhat satisfied with the Narendra Modi-led Central government over the last four years, this figure was 61.7% for the AAP government in Delhi since 2020.