By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: About 30 hours from now people will be voting in Okhla Assembly segment when the Delhi state will be choosing its new government, but this constituency is still one of those where picture will be clear only after ballot boxes are opened. And thus it is most certain there will be a narrow margin victory of a candidate.
Despite the fact that Muslim candidates (14 of total 19 candidates) have tried their best to make an emotive issue of Batla House encounter in their political campaigns, people are still confused and what can be said safely is that there is no wave for any candidate.
Talk to people and first thing they will tell you about is lack of basic facilities – bijli, sadak, pani. No denying the fact, they say, the encounter will also be in people’s mind when they will be casting vote. Any how this is not the first issue for them. But for the candidates, particularly Muslims, this is the top issue.
We want to defeat Congress for what they have done from 1947 to L-18 (the house where the encounter took place on September 19), says Waseem Ahmad Ghazi of Samajwadi Party. He also talks about the basic issues of people.
Waseem Ahmad Ghazi
While you will find many people ruling out the possibility of sitting MLA of Congress party Parwez Hashmi retaining his seat, others you will find evenly divided between different camps. Many talk about ex-councilor Asif Mohd Khan who is in the fray on the ticket of RJD of Lalu Prasad Yadav. Not less are those who seem to have made up their mind to vote for Waseem Ahmad Ghazi of Samajwadi Party. Others who have been campaigning till the deadline included Kamran Siddiqui, an independent candidate. He runs Real Cause, an NGO which has been taking up issues of local people.
Parwez Hashmi
The certainty of confused and divided Muslim vote leads one to the possibility of a history to be made in this constituency – the victory of BJP or BSP candidate. Since Delhi became state in 1993, Parvez Hashmi has won the seat – first time as Janata Dal candidate and next two as Congress candidate. The divided Muslim vote this time can pave the way for victory of either Surender Kumar of BJP or Braham Singh of BSP.
The Okhla constituency has 2,08,754, of which Muslims are more than 50%. The BJP has gained around 25% of cast votes in the last two elections.