Delhi Election 2025: Mohan Singh, a shopkeeper, looks on as people struggle to walk through the streets of Sagarpur. The roads are broken and the sewer pipe replacement work has brought more misery than comfort for residents as the expected road construction did not take place even a year later. The area has been subjected to neglect for around two decades as neither the ruling Aam Aadmi Party, nor BJP or Congress delivered on the promises.

Sagarpur is part of the Dwarka assembly constituency, where Congress’ Mahabal Mishra won in 2008 and BJP’s Pradyuman Rajput bagged the seat in 2013. The seat later went to the AAP’s Adarsh Shastri in 2015 and to Vinay Mishra of AAP in 2020. Mishra is the son of Mahabal Mishra, a former Congress leader who later joined the AAP. 

Another adjacent assembly seat of Palam has witnessed a similar fate when it comes to roads and water facilities. While the BJP bagged the Palam seat in 2003, 2008 and 2013, the AAP snatched it first in 2015 and retained it in 2020. However, the change of parties did not have much bearing on the fate of the area. 

These two seats have a large number of Poorvanchali voters who migrated from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand decades ago and settled here permanently. The two constituencies have over 40% of Purvanchali voters. “I have been living here for the past 40 years. We have been demanding roads and water facilities for long but no one pays attention to it. Even when leaders come for the campaign, they pass through these broken roads but forget the pain once they win,” said Singh, a shoe shop owner, adding that the bad roads have led to a fall in business as well. 

A resident of the Sagarpur, Suman Mishra, said that the situation turns worse during rains as the streets are filled with water and people face issues. “Since school buses don’t come inside, we go to the main road to the drop/pickup location. If it rains, you cannot walk on these streets. Children often fall and get injured,” said Mishra, adding that and irregular power cuts disturb kids’ study timetables.  

Manish Kumar, a private sector employee, shared that the bad roads and encroachment of main roads by e-rickshaws add salts to the injury for office-goers. 

While AAP has retained Vinay Mishra from the Dwarka seat, the BJP has trusted Rajput once again and Congress went ahead with Adarsh Shastri, who joined the party after facing a ticket snub by AAP in 2020. From the Palam seat, the AAP fielded Joginder Solanki, BJP’s candidate is Kuldeep Solanki while the Congress gave a ticket to Mange Ram.

During the campaign, all three parties promised to complete the road construction, but the residents remained cautious, having been disappointed before. With power and water subjected to remain free even if the government changes, the people demand development and better amenities. 

Delhi will vote on February 5 for all 70 seats while the counting of votes will take place on February 8.