Two Purvanchalis, One Seat: Unpacking the 2024 North East Delhi Elections

Over the last two decades, many people from Purvanchal have made Delhi their home with their concentration in the NorthEast constituency of Delhi being the highest in the state. Political parties, always keen to play safe and exploit any demographic data point that increases a candidate’s chances of winning, thought it fit to put up candidates from Purvanchal to contest this seat. While the BJP had Bhojpuri star, Manoj Tiwari, now a veteran here and having even headed the city unit of the BJP earlier, the INC brought in the former JNU student leader and a Ph.D scholar Kanhaiya Kumar to contest from here.

That both these candidates have Purvanchali roots is all that is common between them. On the one hand, was a well-informed, well-read Kanhiya Kumar, and on the other hand was the Bhojpuri actor/singer ever willing to sing a song rather than offer a vision or a solution to the electorate.

But that seems to have worked for Tiwari who won the seat comfortably in the Lok Sabha election 2024. Kanhiya Kumar, however, need not lose heart for he managed to get as many as 6.85 lakh votes in northeast Delhi election results. For somebody who was labeled as ‘anti-national’, ‘rank outsider’, a ‘member of the tukde-tudke gang’, this has been a good performance and it augurs well for this JNU alumnus.