A NATION VOTES IN DELHI

As assembly polls approach, diverse communities in this city of migrants are vocalising their sentiments and concerns, with issues ranging from civic infrastructure to cultural neglect that would shape their poll preferences. Anup Verma, Ifrah Mufti, Ashish Srivastava, Shekhar Singh & Prabhat Shukla look at an entire country as it votes in Delhi

- Anup Verma, Ifrah Mufti, Ashish Srivastava, Shekhar Singh & Prabhat Shukla

WHERE do you stay? In Delhi? I see. And where are you from? More often than not, a 'Delhi resident' would swer for the two questions. And yet, after have a different aninhabiting the city for years on end and irrespective of their standing, a citizen would doubt their belongingness to the Capital a city of migrants, and first-generation migrants, and second generation migrants.

And more keep pouring in through railway stations, and bus depots, their life's possessions in a bundle on their back to become one with this nameless multitude crammed into the 1,483 sq km that is Delhi. Scampering through the alleys in Majnuka-tilla, on the banks of the Yamuna.

in Jungpura slums, South Delhi 'ghettos', and across the industrial wastelands of Narela-Burari, they keep searching for a place to stay And as the city goes to polls, with political parties battling it out over whom the city belongs to, one must ask, 'Who belongs to Delhi?' And, what does Delhi owe to them? In the resettlement colonies, in narrow lanes lined with makeshift homes, a population determines its affiliation to the city.

A group of Pakistani Hindu refugees residing in Majnu-ka-tilla prepare to cast their first votes in the city they now call home. Having fled persecution in Pakistan, they are excited to participate in the 'Indian democracy', a right they have long yearned for. For many of them, who had settled in Delhi around 2013, it is a symbolic assertion of their identity as Indian citizens.

"We have been living here for over a decade and want the government to build permanent homes for us. This area is familiar. We have built our lives here. Moving elsewhere would mean starting from scratch," a Hindu refugee says.

Meanwhile, at the margins of the city, uncertainty runs riot in Kalindi Kunj slums as those inhabiting the shanty colonies are labeled 'illegal'; Bangladeshi, Rohingya, outsider.