Retired IPS officer takes on doctor-turned-politician

New Delhi, Nov 20 (PTI) A retired Indian Police Service officer is pitted against a doctor-turned-politician in the newly-created Sangam Vihar Assembly constituency in the capital, which has a sizeable chunk of migrant population as the capital goes to polls on November 29.

Congress candidate Amod Kanth is locking horns with S C L Gupta of Bhartiya Janta Party in the new seat carved out of Tughlaqabad constituency which includes Hamdard Nagar, Sangam Vihar, Talimabad and Asola Wildlife Sanctuary.

Kanth, who retired from the police service last year and runs an NGO 'Prayas', expressed confidence of winning the seat as he has been "working with the people of the area for over a decade where his organisation has 47 centres".

"They are my people and they are looking for me to take up their cause and fight for them. I served the people as a police officer for 34 years and now I wish to extend my social work into politics. I have been serving the people of Sangam Vihar through Prayas," Kanth said.

He said the constituency is like a "laboratory" for him where he is currently working on an experiment to help the poor and under-privileged.

However, his rival Gupta, who works as a consultant in a
private hospital in south Delhi, also claimed that the people
in Sangam Vihar and Tughlaqabad areas will repose faith on him
as he has been serving them as a doctor for the past 20 years.

A highly-decorated police officer, Kanth had served in
the states of Delhi, Puducherry, Mizoram in various capacities
and also as Director General of Police, Arunachal Pradesh.

Sangam Vihar is one of the migrant-dominated areas and
has the largest slum cluster in the capital which has 10 per
cent of Poorvanchalis and Muslims constitute 20 per cent of
the total 1.5 lakh electorate.

Kanth, who hails from Bihar, sounded positive that
migrant labourers from his state and minority communities will
come out in support of him.

But, Gupta claimed he is "more popular" in the area as
people have a soft corner for "doctors" who save their lives.
"I am still in public service. People respect doctors and they
will be more popular than anyone," he said.

If elected to power, Kanth said, his top priority will be
to bring a sense of security among the people who are
"unhappy" now by putting in place a system to address their
problems.

Steps will be taken to provide clean drinking water to
the people and construct roads and by-lanes for better
connectivity, he said.

On BJP favouring stronger anti-terror laws, he said the
laws of the land are "strong enough" to curb the menace of
terrorism. "At times we need special laws, but as a whole I
think, the laws of the land are strong enough to deal with
terrorism," Kanth said.

"Kanth saab knows what we want. And he has been working
for us and our children for the past ten-fifteen years. So, I
think he should win," Birbal, a merchant in Ratiya Marg of the
segment, said.

However, BJP workers feel that an anti-incumbency wave is
currently on against the Congress Governments, both at the
Centre and the state, and that Congress rebels will play a
spoilsport not only in Sangam Vihar but across Delhi. PTI