NEW DELHI: It is morning in the capital. There are three policemen outside 6, Dr. Bishamber Das Marg sitting on purple, plastic chairs. The chairs have that curious colour that cheap plastic usually has. There is not fixed colour. It's like those chewing gum which has bits and pieces of fruit in it and wavy, undulating lines.
 
When I arrive, the policemen already look bored. At 10:00 am. One of them is gently poking a cat with a stick. The cat is looking fairly pleased with the whole situation.
 
Inside, Vijay Kumar Malhotra, the BJP chief ministerial candidate in Delhi, is ready to face the day. He was born in 1931, which makes him seven years older than incumbent Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. If he wins, he will become one of the oldest chief ministers of Delhi.
 
The walls of his office are full of Hindi textbooks (he used to teach the language). There is a Hindi and English version of L K Advani's biography "My Country, My Life" and, as I noticed, a book on sexology.
 
Vijay Kumar Malhotra is a giant killer. He once beat Manmohan Singh in an election. He now wants to ruin the hat-trick party of Shiela Dikshit. He seemed worried when he I entered the room. A man sitting before him cribbed: "She has more chamak, sir. Much more chamak."
 
Malhotra shook his head and nodded at the telephone. The man continued: "You see, every photo of hers seems to glow. They have also taken a lot of hoardings at bus stops. The bus stops are where people stand and read. We have a big board, very big and there is very little information in it! There is one thing in the corner, our slogan - Jeetegi BJP, Jayega Aatank - but not much else... we need more reading matter."
 
Malhotra now looked up from the phone. He mumbled something and asked the man to call someone. The man, even as he left, left with a final pitch: "Tomorrow, Malhotra-saab, I will get better photographer. You will look much better!"
 
This wanting to look better is such a lovely metaphor between Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and Malhotra who has been waiting to be CM for a long time. In many ways, Sheila Dikshit is "better-looking" than Vijay Kumar Malhotra.
 
For a cosmopolitan (yes it is, even if most Mumbaikars think it is an overgrown village) city like Delhi, in many ways Sheila Dikshit has the right image. She studied at the Jesus and Mary Convent and then at the sprightly, elitist Miranda House and speaks measured, impeccable English. She looks like your favourite, retired school principal grandmother (she is a grandmother) and smiles often. In her campaign TV promo, she refused to pose and one can only see her back, which clearly, like Shah Rukh Khan, she believes is enough for everyone to know who the tiny, white-haired, crisp cotton sari-clad woman is.
 
She is not overtly religous, at least makes no display of faith, and one peep into her living room (which I got this week when I went to interview her) and there is evidence of good taste.
 
Vijay Kumar Malhotra is more rustic, well, not rustic really, he has been a professor for many, many years and is quite, to use that old word, learned. He is actually almost a scholar in Hindi and is well respected in the BJP as a thinker.
 
Here's what the difference between the two really is: Sheila Dikshit, as she told me, has built the Delhi that she wants to live in. The green cover has gone up from 5% to 18%. She introduced CNG and cleaned the smog. In the Delhi I grew up in, you couldn't see the sun for weeks during the harsh winter. She created a network of flyovers ("28 completed, 27 under construction" as the Congress manifesto lovingly puts it). She, with help from the famously mouthy and sharp Suhel Seth, brought about the Bhagidari scheme for citizen participation. She went hard after Diwali crackers and brought down pollution levels.
 
So where did she fail?
 
In the last six months, Delhi has had a spate of terror and law and order issues. Blast after blast, followed by a horrific murder of a young TV journalist Soumya Vishwanathan. Dikshit's comment after Vishwanathan's murder - that the young journalist travelling alone after 3 am was too adventurous - was blasted by the press and pretty much everyone.
 
In the interview, Dikshit said sorry - by the way, first time on TV. She said she regrets the comments but she was essentially saying that organisations have to give their employees safe transport if they work beyond a certain time (the rule in Delhi is 7 pm in winter and 8 pm in summer). But this apology comes much too late.
 
The BJP campaign is already focused on her security failure. In fact, in my interview with Vijay Kumar Malhotra (I tried to write Vijay Malhotra but that seemed too flippant for this quiet, brooding man), his main point was that the moment he becomes CM, Afzal Guru will be hanged!
 
It's a little disturbing, this enthusiasm to hang someone but it must be said that many in Delhi now firmly believe that he is a terrorist and must be hanged. So, Malhotra and BJP are merely playing to the gallery. After the recent terror blasts, Malhotra has won more supporters than ever.
 
BJP believes that their time has come, and Malhotra seems far more confident of winning than actually Dikshit. He kept referring "When I am CM..." and Dikshit, when I asked her about her future if she loses, said: "I assure you that I will go gracefully. I am 70 and I have done a lot."
 
In those two answers lie the tale. The question to ask is not whether Sheila Dikshit did enough for the city. The question to ask is whether she, irrespective of what she has done, alienated many people in the city. The question to ask is irrespective of whether her photo shines or not, has her halo of development faded?
 
The last time, in 2003, it was clear that she would win. The Delhi Metro, started by BJP, but pushed to the hilt and kept honest by Dikshit was going to ensure her win. This time, it won't be that easy. The Metro glory is almost over and Dikshit's other trumpcard, work on the Commonwealth Games, has been jittery.
 
Her motto for the polls is "Cannot afford to stop progress". His is "Jeetegi BJP, Jayega Attank" and "Mehengi Padi Congress."
 
So, who will win the battle of Delhi? Finally, motto will decide, not photo.