"Support and vote for Birju Nayak – people's candidate!" Eye-catching posters with this message are visible on the walls of houses in workers' residential colonies of the South Delhi Lok Sabha Constituency, nearly a month before the residents of Delhi cast their vote for the 15th Lok Sabha Elections. Heralding a new brand of politics and presenting a bold vision of an alternative political process, in which people will be empowered to become their own rulers, this campaign is steadily making inroads into the hearts of the working people of this constituency.

Groups of young men and women, school and college students and young professionals can be seen going house-to-house, engaging the residents in animated discussion. Handbills introducing the candidate, his long years of struggle in defence of the people's interests, his spirited campaigns for the rights of the working people of South Delhi and his lofty political vision for the solution of the problems faced by the poor and working people, are widely distributed.

At street corners, scores of residents gather around the young activists, as they patiently hold forth on burning issues such as – who is responsible for the current economic crisis and why should we be forced to bear the burden, why should the profits of the big capitalists be more important for the government than our livelihood and security, who is behind the terrorist attacks in which so many are getting killed and wounded, in whose interests is it to divide people on the basis of caste and community, how can we hold our political representatives accountable to the people, and so on.

At a public meeting attended by hundreds of residents and political activists, in Sanjay Colony in Okhla Industrial Area of South Delhi, Comrade Birju Nayak was unanimously selected by the Lok Raj Samiti of the area as the candidate who will represent them in the 15th Lok Sabha elections. Supported by the Communist Ghadar Party of India, Lok Raj Sangathan, Hind Naujawan Ekta Sabha, Purogami Mahila Sangathan, several other mass organisations, trade unions and individuals working for the rights of people, Comrade Birju Nayak read out an affidavit declaring that if elected, he would be accountable to the people and would step down from his position if he violated their interests. He explained how his candidature, not on the ticket given by any political party, but by the choice of the people, represents a challenge to present party-dominated political process, in which people have to surrender all power to the elected representative  and are completely marginalised. Leaders of the Lok Raj Samiti of the area as well as of the participating organisations congratulated Comrade Birju Nayak and expressed their confidence in the vision that he is putting forward.

In Transit Camp, Kalkaji, where Comrade Birju Nayak had played a key role in organising and leading the residents to successfully resist their forcible eviction by the authorities two years ago, residents are enthusiastically coming out to support him. In Indira Kalyan Vihar, youth activists are organising meetings and discussions on the issues that Birju is raising in his election campaign. HNES activists in Madanpur Khadar area are mobilising forces to campaign for Birju Nayak. Throughout the vast area covered in this constituency, from Mahipalpur, Palam and Bijwasan, to Bhati Mines, Badarpur and Sangam Vihar, the message of Comrade Birju Nayak is being carried to the people by his team of enthusiastic young workers.

Construction workers organised under the Nirman Mazdoor Panchayat Sangam have come forward pledging their support for Comrade Birju Nayak and promising to propagate his message.   

Thousands of copies of the statement issued by LRS on the occasion of the 15th Lok Sabha elections and well as copies of the latest issue of Mazdoor Ekta Lehar carrying the manifesto of the CGPI for these elections are being warmly received and read with great interest by the people in this constituency. People are increasingly rejecting the present political process in which they are mere voting cattle with no control over the elected representatives, and the campaign of Comrade Birju Nayak promises to make a break with this process.