New Delhi: With Delhi gearing up for the biggest battle on February 7, the major players are leaving no stone unturned in capturing the bulk of 25 lakh-strong trading community vote.
Out of 70 constituencies, 24 have sizeable presence of traders and sub castes such as Agarwal, Khandelwal, Maheshwari, Gupta, Jain and Goel can change Delhi's political scenario. 20% among Delhi's 13 million electorate are traders.
35 candidates of BJP, half of total number of party candidates, have disclosed they are traders. The figure is 32 for Congress and 20 for AAP.
The Aam Aadmi Party on Monday attacked the BJP for allegedly insulting the Agarwal community in its poll advertisement. BJP said the ad targeted Kejriwal and the AAP leader was trying to link it to a whole community for obvious reasons. This came after Kejiriwal in December described himself as "baniya" who understands business.
Reacting to the ad published, senior BJP leader Vijay Goel, who comes from the trading community said "our ad hasn't hurt anyone's sentiments. Kejiriwal is ranking up the issue and identifying himself as a bania for political gains. Today a large number of traders held a meeting and resolved to support BJP".
Praveen Khandelwal of Confederation of All India Traders claimed that as much as 70% of Delhi government's revenue comes from traders but nothing much is being done for their welfare." The government must ensure that there is ease of doing business," he said.
While political parties are roasting the issue, independent traders are not impressed by this.
In Delhi's poll ring, every third candidate is a trader. The ratio is 209/673. So surely traders are going to play a significant role in Delhi's Assembly polls.
