Amid a growing buzz over parliamentary elections in the national capital, the Delhi BJP is believed to be working on a strategy to take the message of the recent protection against demolitions offered by the Narendra Modi government to the residents of 1,700 unauthorised colonies. The moving force behind the step appears to be Northeast parliamentary seat MP Manoj Tiwari, whose constituency is home to a bulk of these colonies, source said.
Sources said though “Modi ki guarantee” and the development model of the Modi government are going to be the party’s main plank in the parliamentary election on the city’s seven seats, the party is looking to apprise the voters in these unauthorised colonies—mostly migrants from Poorvanchal and Uttarakhand—about the BJP’s concern for them.
The party also has an eye on the 2025 Assembly elections and wants to take credit for the three-year ban on the demolition of these illegal colonies and the ongoing exercise for giving ownership rights to home owners which started in 2019 through the PM Uday Yojana, said a party leader.
According to the Ministry of Urban Development, the population in unauthorised colonies is between 40-50 lakh and around 8-10 lakh registrations would be needed for covering all the illegal colonies. However, only four lakh home owners from these colonies have got their properties registered.
Tiwari as a Poorvanchal politician holds sway among voters from UP and Bihar who are currently living in illegal colonies. Sources said he has been constantly pushing the Central government to step up development work in his constituency, as well as others that are home to these 1,731 illegal colonies.
Most residents in these illegal colonies have shifted from Poorvanchal or Uttarakhand to Delhi and built homes in unapproved zones in the city. Their homes have either been built on government land or zones that are not permitted to have residential dwelling. These voters are largely spread over the Delhi’s Northeast, West and East parliamentary seats but they can influence the outcome of Lok Sabha election’s in other seats as well.
Parliament earlier passed a bill to protect slums and unauthorised colonies in the National Capital Territory from punitive action till a framework for orderly arrangements are in place.
The National Capital Territory of Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Second (Amendment) Bill, 2023, gives immunity to slums and some unauthorised constructions till 31 December 2026. The immunity under the existing Bill ends on 31 December.
In 2019, an attempt to provide such a framework was made when the Union Cabinet approved a proposal to grant ownership rights to the people living in these unauthorised colonies in Delhi.
Soon after the NDA victory in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Tiwari had said the urban development ministry had directed BJP’s Delhi unit leaders to conduct a survey and take feedback from people in these colonies. The party also sent elected representatives to 22 unauthorised colonies in the first phase.
“We will expose the Arvind Kejriwal government, which has failed to regularise these settlements despite being in power,” Tiwari said.
The Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Act, 2006 was enacted by the UPA government to protect some forms of unauthorised constructions in the city for a period of one year as the civic agencies had started razing them under court orders.