The five Muslim heavy weights of the Congress from Okhla, Matiamahal, Ballimaran, Seelampur and Mustafabad faced drubbing; while AAP has won four of these, except Mustafabad where BJP has won.
By M Reyaz, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: The choice of Muslim voters in Delhi this time seems quite clear: the broom is all over in Delhi and the Muslim voters too have posed their faiths in the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), unlike the 2013 Assembly elections when they were apprehensive about them.
The AAP surge (67 out of 70) has wiped out the Congress completely (BJP, which had won 7 lok sabha only eight months ago, too get only 3 seats) in this Assembly election as even their heavy weights, who were successful in keeping few (eight) seats for the Congress; have all lost the election this time.
In the five Muslim dominated constituencies of Okhla, Matiamahal, Ballimaran, Seelampur and Mustafabad, where the Muslim heavy weights had successfully retained their respective constituencies; AAP has won four of these, except Mustafabad where BJP has gained.
One big loss has, however, been Mustafabad where in direct fight between the Congress and AAP, BJP gained. Congress stalwart Hassam Ahmed who had won for five consecutive terms lost to BJP’s Jagdish Pradhan in a close fight. In fact only in Mustafabad, Congress could give some fight getting over 50 thousands votes, but ended as runner up to BJP’s Jagdish Pradhan who won with a margin of over 6000 votes.
Most of the so called Muslim heavy weights of the party have all ended at number three, with BJP being the first runner ups in these constituencies.
The decision of Shoaib Iqbal, Old Delhi’s heavy weight and five times MLA from Matia Mahal, surround Jama Masjid area, to join the grand old party seems does not seem to go down well with the voters. Asim Ahmed Khan of AAP has won from here with a margin of over 26 thousand votes.
In Old Delhi’s Ballimaran, Haroon Yusuf, who won the elections since 1993 for five consecutive times, has lost to AAP’s Imran Hussain. Yusuf has ended a distant third with little over 13 thousand votes, while BJP’s Shyam Lal Morwal has come second.
In trans-Yamuna constituency of Seelampur, another Congress’ heavy weight Chaudhary Mateen Ahmed has faced a drubbing as he too came at distant number three with less than 24 thousand votes, less than BJP’s Sanjay Jain (29415). AAP’s Mohd. Ishraque has won with over 57 thousand votes.
There was clear anti-incumbency against Asif Mohammad Khan of the Congress in Okhla constituency too. AAP’s Amanatullah Khan has won with an avalanche by a margin of nearly 65 thousand votes. Asif has finished a distant third with little over 20 thousand votes, with BJP’s Brahm Singh has come second. He had won the 2013 election convincingly.
Babarpur constituency, which roughly has 63:37 Hindus-Muslims population, is a BJP stronghold for last four consecutive elections when Naresh Gaur won it for the saffron party. Congress’ Zakir Khan was second with nearly 26% of votes while AAP’s Gopal Rai managed above 22% votes. Gopal Rai of AAP has won it handsomely with over 75 thousand votes, while Gaur finished second.
Tension had erupted in northeast Delhi’s Babarpur constituency in November when parts of a cow’s carcass were found at a market place. Fact that Zakir has got less than 10000 votes shows that the Muslim votes in this constituency too went to AAP.
Last time, the Congress’ Pralad Singh Sawhney had won the Chandini Chowk seat too which has 25% Muslim voters. This time Alka Lamba of AAP has won here, while the BJP has ended at second.
While in the 2013 Assembly elections, Muslim voters of Delhi appeared apprehensive of the AAP, in the general elections of 2014, they seemed confused and divided which indirectly helped the BJP, because of split in their votes between ‘loyalty’ for the Congress and ‘new aspirations’.
This time, however, there was no confusion; as the Congress was not even seen as a competent rival; and hence the voters, both in educated clusters of Jamia Nagar in Okhla constituency as well as in the lower middle class and working class voters of Seelampur made their choice clear; and went with the mood of the rest of Delhi voters.
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