Our 3rd stop is the beautiful Mehar Chand Market in South Delhi. To those of you familiar with the Delhi landscape, you would probably remember this as the tailors' market of the 90s. Now though it's become one of the toniest joints around. Full of international level food outlets, clothes shops and fancy furniture stores, the market consists of several medium-sized shops.
We reach the place to see whether the educated cla**es of Delhi - those with the spending power - are still rallying behind Aam Aadmi Party.
MS Dheer, the AAP candidate who won from the adjoining constituency of Jungpura and got elected as Assembly Speaker isn't with the AAP. Kasturba Nagar, under which this area falls voted for AAP. Now though, many in this area are of the view that if Delhi has to grow further and become a “smart city,” it requires the smartness of Narendra Modi and not the perceived naivete of a Kejriwal.
To test this, we go to a popular coffee shop, Kunafa. We speak to the owner, Nasir, who by the way isn't a voter but is as much a Dilliwaala as anyone else. “I am all for development. I want this city to be a clean city. I am not from India, but I am as much a Hindustani, as anyone else.” Is he talking about the Swacch Bharat campaign launched by the PM? “No, but I do hope that anyone who comes to rule Delhi does manage the basic law and order issues and cleanliness.” Next to this coffee shop is a very old general store - a shop from where you get everything for your daily needs. The owner is much more forthcoming: “Parties come and parties go. Everyone has only made tall claims. My vote this time will be with AAP. Why not give them a chance?”
The strand of thought we pick up here is that, as you move lower down the pecking order of economic hierarchy, political preference seems to be veering round to the AAP.