Newsletter dated 29th March 2007 :  for distribution to all Delhi RWA Chiefs

RWAs participation in municipal polls: Over 350 RWAs participated; 21 candidates in the fray.
People’s Action has forwarded a factual round-up of the pioneering exercise aimed at increasing the participation of civil society in municipal polls for the benefit of URJA members. Sanjay Kaul, President People’s Action said, “By initiating RWAs through a 5-step procedure to identify genuine, worthy candidates form among their own wards and to either put them up for adoption by political parties or set them up for an independent claim on the seat, we have attempted to challenge the existing system of ticket distribution and advanced the theory of a more transparent system of candidate selection”.
“This exercise is a result of over four years of work fighting voter apathy within the middle class. Based on the premise that it is only when voters find a candidate worthy of their vote do they come out to vote, our campaign to identify better candidates and a procedure that involved residents in his or her selection was a scientific methodology to induce the voter’s interest in the electoral process. It is therefore our thesis that in areas where RWAs have participated in candidate selection and where such candidates are standing for elections, we will see a higher percentage of voting from this segment,” said  Mr. Kaul.

Punjab Kesri & URJA start ‘Janata Ka Ummeedwar’ campaign: Punjab Kesri newspaper, the largest selling Hindi newspaper in Delhi, found the procedure established by People’s Action and URJA so impressive, that it agreed to launch a new campaign through its own paper called the “People’s Candidate” or ‘Janata ka Ummeedwa’. This campaign further created a frenzy of enquiries and resulted in countless phone calls and applications that were processed by People’s Action and passed on for further action to URJA representatives across Delhi who interviewed these candidates and ran them through a special process of verification and securing local RWA support.

Round up of municipal elections campaign:  Of the 70 wards we had identified in the first instance as areas where there was a sizeable middle class population and where candidates identified by RWAs could make a serious difference in the poll outcomes, provided they mobilize voters, 35 wards finally participated in the exercise.

All 35 succeeded in forming Resident Ward Committees made up of various RWAs within the ward numbering from 8 to 20 in each ward. Of these, 22 Wards completed the 5-step procedure laid down by us as a pre-requisite for declaring a candidate, but only 18 were successful in declaring a consensus candidate. Of these, only 9 were finally able to manage to withstand pressures of all sorts and have the selected candidates in the fray.

In all, over 350 RWAs participated directly in this exercise involving over 4000 members of their executive, thousands more as residents who participated in public meetings and corner discussions on the subject as we prepared the round for the exercise.

Apart from this, we received applications from over 150 candidates from wards where RWAs were either non-existent or not organized. We clubbed these candidates under the ‘People’s Candidate’ programme. Of the applications we received, close to 30 were found to be worthy of interviews, about 18 were taken through a process of ‘field tests’and reference checks, public endorsements, and finally 12 were okayed.

In all, this composite process has allowed us to identify 21 candidates, who have come through a democratic procedure, by consensus, without having to ‘pay’ for tickets, or exhibiting a capacity to bribe their voters by way of money or liquor and who are answerable to a wider group of residents from within their ward.

Highlights:

• As we had predicted, main political parties were forced to make public statements regarding not giving tickets to those with criminal antecedents [ Congress actually declined tickets to such sitting councilors ], be more transparent, and that relatives/wives of workers would not get tickets in lieu.
• At least in two confirmed instances, the candidate selected by the Residents Ward Committee was given a ticket by a major political party.
• Candidates were put through intense pressure by workers of both political parties and some withdrew in spite of being nominated by their Committees.
• The 1.5 Lac expenditure is still considered too heavy a burden by most candidates who do not come from either rich or political backgrounds.
• Polarization of many prominent RWAs along political lines came in the way of effective formation or operation of Resident Ward Committees in many areas.
• Pressure on some candidates continues even now, although the date for withdrawal has passed.
• Almost everyone agrees that the procedure laid down by People’s Action for candidate selection is ‘flawless’ and a democratic model for all parties to follow.
• It was a tough campaign to start with, considering the newness of the idea, but the all-round appreciation among the RWAs and residents has made it possible for a good beginning.

Role of independent candidates and NGOs:  As a result of the election campaign undertaken by URJA in consultation with People’s Action, a number of independent groups and NGO’s attempting to ride the bandwagon without requisite knowledge or experience of the issue suddenly appeared on the scene. Among these were groups with never heard before names like Jan Morcha or Pratinidhi Sanghathan or Lok Raj Manch and similar sounding names. They tried to copy the concept and the procedure that we had developed with very poor results and finally just fielded independent candidates leading to suspicion that they were acting as a front for various political parties or lobby groups who had set up candidates to split votes. This is precisely why we had advocated no support for such candidates and we maintain that only the residents of the ward, following the five step procedure outlined in the last newsletter, must be authorised to identify candidates.

DISCLAIMER : A number of independent candidates are claiming support from RWAs without actually passing through the procedure established by People’s Action and URJA. Kindly note that only 21 candidates have been authorised as having cleared the procedure so far and their list is attached below. Kindly ensure that you support only such candidates that are mentioned below as ‘People’s Candidates’. Do not support any other candidates who may claim URJA or People’s Action or RWA support as they are making use of these names without authorisation and have not been verified through the Resident Ward Committee of the area as per information available with us.

List of Final Candidates

1. Rohini (21),  RWC 1., Smt.  Sneh Bala, 
2. Rithala (22),  RWC 2 , Mr. Ramesh Kumar, 
3. Rohini-North (49), RWC 3 , Mr. Rajpal Chauhan, 
4. Pitampura South (53) RWC-4, RWC 4 , Mr., R. K., Khanna,
5. Wazirpur (67), RWC 5 , Mr. Subhash Chander Gupta,
6. Rajendra Nagar (149), RWC 6 , Mr. S. P. Gupta,  
7. Gharoli (216), RWC 7 , Mr., K.C.S. Pillai,  
8. Mayur Vihar - II (219), RWC 8, Mr. V. Haridasan Nair,
9. Kondli (215) SC,   RWC 9, Mr, Ram  Lakhan,
10. Vishnu Garden (107),  JKU 1, Mr. Vinod Sharma,  
11. Paschim Vihar South (57) JKU 2,  Ms. Neelam Aggarwal,  
12. Madhu Vihar (148),  JKU 3,  Mr, Chetan, Sharma,
13. Janak Puri North (109), JKU 4, Mr, Amir Chand,  
14. Mauzpur (252),  JKU 5, Mr. Kalki Das Bhandari  
15. Prahlad Pur (198),  JKU 6, Mr. Sampat Singh, 
16. Kapashera (143),  JKU 7, Ms. Vandana Sehrawat, 
17. Shalimar Bagh(56),  JKU 9, Mr. Mahender, Tandon,
18. Saraswati Vihar(60), JKU 10, Smt.Mohini, Bhatti, ,
19. Pooth Kalan(25) ,   JKU 11, Ms. Suman, Kabir,
20. Uttam Nagar(127),  JKU 12,  Mr, Deepak, Nagesh,  
21. Bindapur (128), JKU 13, Mr. Naresh Aggarwal,

To join the URJA RWA email group, please send us mail at urja-delhi-rwas@googlegroups.com

For more information, pl. contact: West Delhi: Atul Goyal on 9868148896; East Delhi: Rajesh Dokwal 9899808233;
South Delhi: Wing Commander J.S. Chadda 9312626900 or Vijay Raghavan 9818887938  Rohini : R.C. Kamboj 9818395055;
North Delhi: Dr. H.C. Gupta 9818309621; Dwarka: S.S. Yadav 9810706130 or K.M. Rai 9968492323

The RWAs from the following wards participated:

 RWA Convention to review municipal elections & discuss future steps on 14th April: See invite.

• Campaign against power harassment: 
• Developments on Master Plan 2021:
• Serious questions on Commonwealth Games :