Electoral War Over Electricity Bills in Delhi

Manish Swarup/Associated Press A maze of overhead electric cables in New Delhi on Aug. 1, 2012.

NEW DELHI - On Oct. 7, 2012, Bana Ram, a laborer who lives with six family members in a modest two-room house in the slum-like Tigri Colony area of South Delhi, received an electricity bill of 15,116 rupees ($250) for the months of September and October. Mr. Ram, who earns 8,000 rupees ($130) a month after 12-hour days of hard labor, was stunned. If he paid what the electric company demanded, Mr. Ram would be left with 600 rupees ($10) to feed his family for two months. The company, BSES Rajdhani Pvt. Ltd., disconnected his power supply for non-payment.

The story of exorbitant electricity charges is repeating itself throughout Delhi, feeding growing discontent among residents, especially of lower-income neighborhoods, over inadequate public services at higher costs. The spending on food and household supplies in the city rose 76 percent, mostly because of inflation, from  2004-05 to 2009-10.

Sheila Dikshit, the 74-year-old leader of the Indian National Congress party, is completing her third term as the chief minister of Delhi and seeking a fourth term in December elections for the Delhi government. Arvind Kejriwal, the anti-graft activist-turned-politician who leads the fledgling Aam Aadmi (Common Man’s) Party, has positioned himself as David to Ms. Dikshit’s Goliath. Mr. Kejriwal founded his party in November 2012 after he parted ways with his more famous colleague, Anna Hazare, who led the 2011 anti-graft protests in Delhi.

Saurabh Das/Associated Press Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, left, with Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi on Apr. 29, 2009.

Mr. Kejriwal hopes to challenge Ms. Dixit by cashing on the public discontent over the poor delivery of services, higher costs, and the numerous charges of corruption against the governing Congress party. Mr. Kejriwal, who has declared that he will run against Ms. Dikshit in the New Delhi constituency, is hoping to use the steep increases in electricity bills as a sling shot against the Congress party veteran.

After the electric company cut off his power supply, Mr. Ram, the laborer, made a desperate call to a helpline number set up by Mr. Kejriwal’s party. The Aam Aadmi Party launched a campaign against the high cost and poor delivery of electricity and water in Delhi. Mr. Kejriwal exhorted the people of Delhi to tear up their power bills and refuse payment.

A day after Mr. Ram called, Mr. Kejriwal, followed by television crews and newspaper reporters, arrived at the laborer’s house in Tigri Colony. Mr. Kejriwal threw a challenge to the government and illegally restored Mr. Ram’s electricity supply. He went on to do the same in several other low-income neighborhoods, hoping to win hearts and votes. Between August 2011 and May 2012, electricity charges for Delhi’s domestic consumers rose by 29 percent. In June 2012, the tariff was increased by another 24.15 percent. In May, it rose again, by 1.5 percent. It added up to an increase of about 50 percent in two years.

Saurabh Das/Associated Press Arvind Kejriwal, center, flanked by Prashant Bhushan, left, and Manish Sisodia addressing a press conference in New Delhi on Nov. 9, 2012.

In February 2013, Mr. Kejriwal held a news conference at which he produced a series of documents and alleged a connivance of sorts between Delhi’s private electricity distribution companies and the Delhi government let by Ms. Dikshit. Delhi’s power distribution is controlled by two of India’s most powerful business houses, the Tata Group and Reliance Infra. Mr. Kejriwal and his party’s leaders have accused Ms. Dikshit of burdening the common man for the sake of private profits.

“The Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) chief suggested reducing tariffs by 23 percent because the private distribution companies were not making any losses as shown by them in their books,” Mr. Kejriwal asserted. “The distribution companies were making profits of close to 3,577 crore rupees ( $600 million) whose benefits could be passed on to the consumer. However, the office of Sheila Dikshit stopped the DERC chief from issuing a tariff reduction order based on his information.”

The power companies ignored Mr. Kejriwal, but Delhi’s Congress government sought to dispel the allegations.

“Kejriwal is trying to sensationalize the issue with his bunch of lies,” Haroon Yusuf, Delhi’s power minister, told reporters. “In the last 10 years, there has been an 83 percent hike in the power tariff against a 137 percent increase in power purchase costs. The decision is transparent.”

A month later, in March, Mr. Kejriwal began a 15-day hunger strike to protests high electricity  and water bills at Seemapuri, a congested, lower-income area in northeastern Delhi. Initially, he was ignored. By the 10th day, a sizeable number of residents showed up in solidarity.

As the elections draw closer, Mr. Kejriwal’s party has also begun an aggressive campaign with posters pasted on Delhi’s ubiquitous auto rickshaws, the vehicle of choice for the city’s lower- and middle-class residents. On the left corner of one poster is the image of a contemplative, elderly-looking Ms. Dikshit with the label “corrupt.” On the right is an angry, younger Mr. Kejriwal and the word “honest.” Above the two faces is the warning: If you vote for the corrupt yet again, women will continue to be raped in Delhi.

Courtesy of Sai Manish An Aam Aadmi Party poster on an auto-rickshaw in New Delhi.

A second poster using the same pictures accuses Ms. Dikshit of making millions of rupees in the graft scandal involving the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in 2010. It contrasts that allegation with the biography of Mr. Kejriwal, who left Indian Revenue Service as a mid-level bureaucrat and became an anti-graft activist. The poster describes him as a man who rejected the Income Tax Commissioner’s jobâ€" hinting at the riches he might have amassed had he chosen to embrace corruption as a top taxman.

“The Aam Aadmi Party is a party of demagogues who will say anything about anybody without any credibility,” said Sandeep Dikshit, a member of parliament from East Delhi and the Delhi chief minister’s son.

The dominant political parties in Delhi, the Congress party and the Bharatiya Janata Party remain dismissive of Mr. Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party, which is running in its first elections. Mr. Kejriwal and his colleagues are sneered at as inexperienced and naïve upstarts, oblivious to how power works in Delhi.

“I do not even consider the AAP a competitor in the upcoming elections. There is nothing new about them nor are they of any interest to me,” Mr. Dikshit said. “The main opposition to us in Delhi is the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) and to some extent the BSP (Bahujan Samajwadi Party).”

Yet the Aam Aadmi Party remains hopeful of finding support beyond the urban poor and lower-middle classes. “People are distressed about the difficulty of starting a business, finding a job, getting your child into school, or getting a passport. They feel cheated, cornered and helpless,” said Manish Sisodia, a founding member of the Aam Aadmi Party. “The middle classes of Delhi want change this time.”

The Aam Aadmi Party is expected to win a modest number of Delhi assembly seats. It is preparing a localized manifesto for each of Delhi’s 70 assembly seats and intends to promise a focus on solving localized problems. It is not uncommon to see government employees, tea shop owners, auto-rickshaw drivers and small shopkeepers in Delhi discussing the nascent party.

To signal its empathy for the masses and its disdain for the entrenched political players, the Aam Aadmi Party has promised not to use red lights on an official car if any of its members is elected to the Delhi assembly. It has promised not to nominate two members of the same family or candidates with criminal records as candidates in the elections, never to use government bungalows, and not to use any special security if elected.

But voters will be seeking answers to several major questions before they chose Mr. Kejriwal’s party over the well-oiled political machines of the Congress and the BJP. Mr. Kejriwal seems to have already lost one of his battles. His demonstrations of not paying electricity bills might have gotten him media attention, but they did not make the electricity charges go away.

After Mr. Kejriwal restored Mr. Ram’s electricity supply, the laborer received a steeper bill of  18,000 rupees ($300).  Mr. Ram and his family had to take out a loan.

“We are still paying back the loans we took to pay the electricity bill,” said Manisha, Mr. Ram’s niece, who uses only one name.

Sai Manish is a freelance journalist based in New Delhi. He was shortlisted for the Kurt Schork Award in International Journalism in 2012 while working as a reporter for Tehelka magazine.