By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: Despite repeated refusal of the Central government of a judicial enquiry into the Batla House encounter and yesterday’s Delhi High Court order rejecting the demand thereof, the issue, it seems, has gained center-stage at least for political reasons.
This is evident from the attention the political parties, particularly secular ones, are giving to Delhi’s Okhla Assembly seat under which lies the Batla House area where the encounter took place on September 19.
Abu Asim Azmi speaking while Wasim Ahmed Ghazi sitting at extreme right
Okhla has been represented by Parvez Hashmi of the Congress party in the last three consecutive elections but this time, more because of the encounter and subsequent arresting of some Jamia Millia Islamia students from the area in connection with the September 13 Delhi serial bombings and a ‘silence’ as the locals say maintained by the local MLA, people would like change.
The change, however, could go either way – to BJP or to any secular party besides Congress. This because all secular parties have fielded a Muslim candidate from the seat and this may result in the traditional division of secular votes and consolidation of votes for the BJP. The BJP has fielded Surendra Bidhuri for the seat in the 70-member Delhi Assembly elections.
In the last two Assembly elections the BJP remained at No. 2 with bagging about 25-30% of votes cast while the winner candidate Hashmi of the Congress got 55-60% of votes. As the people have shown anger, and this is evident from their positions in the rallies and programmes since the encounter, voting percentage for the Congress will go down, to say the least.
In the present Assembly the Congress has 47 members, BJP 20 and JD (S), NCP and Independent one each.
For the Assembly election 2008 for which vote will be cast later this month, the Congress has again fielded its three-time MLA from the area Parvez Hashmi. Raza Haider and Ameeruddin have been fielded by the CPM and CPI respectively. These parties had not fielded their candidates in the last election in the area.
On the other hand the Samajwadi Party which has been in the forefront of the demand for a judicial enquiry into the encounter since almost the beginning has made local leader Wasim Ahmed Ghazi its candidate. He was SP’s candidate in the last election also. This time he is emerging as a strong candidate giving a good fight to Hashmi of the Congress. A plus point for Ghazi is that he comes from Azamgarh, the eastern Uttar Pradesh district that remained for long in the news for wrong reasons. The two suspected terrorists killed in the encounter were from Azamgarh. And those arrested from the Jamia Nagar area are also from the same district. However, the witch hunting of Azmis by the police in the wake of the encounter has made public angry.
To pacify the public anger, particularly that of Azmis who are in good number in the area, some time back Azamgarh MP Akbar Ahmad Dumpy made a visit to Batla House.
Now to encash that anger Samajwadi Party MP Abu Asim Azmi has landed in Delhi to campaign for Ghazi. He launched the election campaign for Ghazi this week by addressing a public gathering in which he singled out the Congress for the attack on minorities particularly Muslims.
Abu Asim Azmi said people of this area should defeat the Congress candidate from the area otherwise it will be a great humiliation for them. Heavyweights of SP including Mulayam Singh and Amar Singh are likely to campaign for Ghazi as the party’s victory on this seat will strengthen its hold on Muslim votes in Uttar Pradesh.
| No. of Electors | 123595 | Polling Stations |
146 |
| No. of Contestants |
11 | Polling %age |
44.09 |
| Candidates | Valid Votes in AC |
|||
| Sl No. |
Name | Party | Number | Percentage |
| 2 | PARVEZ HASHMI | Indian National Congress | 29876 | 54.83 |
| 3 | RAJPAL SINGH | Bharatiya Janata Party | 15227 | 27.94 |
| 6 | WASIM AHMAD GHAZI | Samajwadi Party | 6723 | 12.34 |
| 5 | KABIR KHAN | National Loktantrik Party | 704 | 1.29 |
| 1 | AMIRUDDIN | Bahujan Samaj Party | 682 | 1.25 |
| 4 | ASGHAR KHAN | Janata Dal (Secular) | 638 | 1.17 |
| 11 | C.B. SHARMA ADVOCATE | Independent | 236 | 0.43 |
| 9 | DHARAM PAL ARORA | Independent | 222 | 0.41 |
| 10 | VISHWAS | Independent | 92 | 0.17 |
| 7 | ALEEM | Independent | 70 | 0.13 |
| 8 | JAMALLUDDIN | Independent | 21 | 0.04 |
| Total Valid Votes |
54491 | 100.00 | ||
| Lead Margin |
14649 | |||
| List Of Winning Candidates | ||||||||
| Year | Voters In 1000 |
Voter Turnout (% age) |
Winner | Runner-up | ||||
| Candidate Name | %age | Party | Candidate Name |
%age | Party | |||
| 2003 | 54.49 | 44.09 | PARVEZ HASHMI | 54.83 | INC | RAJPAL SINGH | 27.94 | BJP |
| 1998 | 57.13 | 37.00 | PARVEZ HASHMI | 57.83 | INC | KRISHAN KUMAR MEHTA | 25.78 | BJP |
| 1993 | 43.64 | 52.90 | PARVEJ | 30.91 | JD | HASAN AHMED | 27.87 | INC |