New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) suffered a crushing defeat in the Delhi assembly polls, but it has maintained domination in the Muslim-dominated constituencies. The Arvind Kejriwal-led party won six of the seven Muslim dominated seats, with Mustafabad slipping from its net.
According to the Election Commission, the AAP candidates comfortably won in Matia Mahal, Babarpur, Chandni Chowk, Seelampur, Okhla, and Ballimaran. All the seven seats have Muslims voters between 25 percent and 50 percent.
Five years ago, AAP had won all seven seats by big margins. In Mustafabad, the BJP threw a surprise this time, but it was courtesy the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) eating into the AAP’ Muslim vote bank. The AIMIM’s Tahir Hussain secured over 33,000 votes, while the AAP lost the seat by a little over 17,500 votes.
The Aam Aadmi Party had repeated its strategy of 2020 by fielding Muslim candidates in five seats–Matia Mahal, Ballimaran, Okhla, Seelampur and Mustafabad. The Congress had six Muslim candidates, whereas the BJP did not field any such candidate.
Matia Mahal
In this assembly seat that falls under the Chandni Chowk parliamentary constituency, AAP’s Aaley Mohammad Iqbal defeated BJP’s Deepti Indora by 42,724 votes. The former deputy mayor secured 68.8 percent of the total votes. The Congress’s Asim Ahmed came third with 10,295 votes. In 2020, his father and AAP candidate Shoib Iqbal won by a margin of around 50,000 votes. He had secured 75. 96 percent of the total votes.
Babarpur
Senior AAP leader Gopal Rai retained the seat for the third consecutive time as he trounced BJP’s Anil Kumar Vashisht by 18,994 votes. The Congress’s Ishraq Khan secured only 8,797 votes. The former Delhi minister cornered 53.9 percent of the total votes. But his win margin and vote percentage came down as it was 33,000-plus votes and 59.39 percent in 2020.
Seelampur
In this assembly seat falling under the North East Delhi parliamentary constituency, AAP’s Chaudhary Zubair Ahmad defeated BJP’s Anil Kumar Sharma by 42,477 votes. The winner secured 59.21 percent of the total votes. In the process, he bettered Abdul Rehman’s margin of 36,000-plus votes and 56.05 percent vote share. Rehman, who had switched to the Congress after being ignored, got 16,524 votes.
Chandni Chowk
With 54.79 percent vote share, AAP’s Punardeep Singh Sawhney retained the seat won by his father in 2020. But his win margin of 16,572 votes over BJP’s Satish Jain was less than his father Punardeep’s margin of at least 29,000 votes. The AAP’s vote percentage was 65.92 percent.
Ballimaran
Imran Hussain clinched a third consecutive victory in Ballimaran, where he defeated BJP’s Kamal Bagri by a whopping 29,823 votes. The AAP leader got 58 percent vote share. In 2020, his win margin was 36,000-plus votes while his vote share was 64.65 percent. Senior Congress leader Haroon Yusuf finished third in both these assembly polls.
Okhla
Amanatullah Khan also secured three wins in a row as he defeated BJP’s Manish Chaudhary by 23,639 votes. The AAP leader secured 42.45 percent of the total votes. Both his win margin and win margin came down: 71,000-plus votes and 66.03 percent. Meanwhile, AIMIM’s Shifa ur Rehman came third with 39,558 votes, and Congress’s young face Ariba Khan ended fourth with 12,739 votes.
Mustafabad
The lone blip for the AAP was this constituency, as BJP’s Mohan Singh Bisht defeated AAP’s Adeel Ahmed Khan by 17,578 votes. Bisht cornered 42.36 percent of the total votes. In 2020, AAP’s Haji Yunus defeated BJP’s Jagdish Pradhan by the margin of at least 20,000 votes.
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How Muslims voted
Tanvir Aeijaz, an associate professor at the University of Delhi and vice-president at Centre for Multilevel Federalism (CMF) at Institute of Social Sciences, said that the Muslim voters chose the AAP over the Congress.
“Though the AAP lost, it got significant votes in Muslim-dominated seats. On the other hand, the Congress failed to play as a spoiler. During its campaign, the Congress focussed on these seats but the Muslims at large decided to vote for that candidate who could mount a strong challenge to the BJP. So, they preferred the AAP over the Congress,” he told ThePrint.
These results, according to a senior leader in the Delhi Congress, gave an important signal to the party. “Despite focussing more on minority-dominated seats, if we focussed more on other seats, then we might have hurt the AAP more. As of now, we gave a dent to the AAP on 13 seats. If we focussed on other seats equally, then the party could have opened its account,” he told ThePrint.
Like Prof. Aeijaz, the Congress functionary asserted that the Muslims preferred the AAP with the thought that it could pose a challenge to the BJP. This, he added, was despite an underlying feeling within the community that the AAP had not stood by it, especially during the 2020 riots and the anti-CAA protests.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Also Read: Delhi polls: AAP wins more SC-reserved seats than BJP in election marked by Ambedkar row