Anger against AAP is palpable in Delhi’s slums. Is it enough to cost the party the election?

The small Hanuman temple in Delhi’s Kusumpur Pahadi slum comes alive on Tuesday afternoons, when residents trickle into the temple courtyard along with members of a local non-profit organisation.

On January 28, the thin lanes leading to the temple were lined with dozens of blue jerrycans – a common sight across the slum.

With the Delhi elections just eight days away, the agenda that afternoon was: “choosing the right representative”. In attendance were nearly two dozen residents, almost all women. An NGO volunteer, Ashok Kumar, spoke about how the MLA fund must be used for development work and welfare schemes, like providing water connections to Kusumpur households.

“No politician does anything for us,” interrupted Savita, 50, who has lived in the slum for three decades. “Kejriwal should have given us water connections. What’s the point of voting for him?”

With 4,909 households, Kusumpur Pahadi is one of the biggest slums in Delhi, according to the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board, or DUSIB. It falls in South Delhi’s Mehrauli Assembly constituency. Most of its residents are Muslims or Dalits from the Valmiki and Jatav communities. Dalits constitute about 16% of the capital’s population, according to the 2011 census, while 13% of Delhiites are Muslim.

Across three slums in Delhi, including in Seemapuri and...

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