Has AAP lost Midas touch with Muslims?
New Delhi: Has the Muslim Vote bank shifted back to Congress is the biggest question catching attention this Lok Sabha election. With Atihsi of AAP pushed to third position in areas with a sizable population of Muslims it seems likely Congress might not be able to clear the results but has definitely made inroads into AAP vote bank.
With AAP candidate Atishi getting just 17.4 % votes in comparison to Congress candidate Arvinder Singh Lovely's 24.4 % votes in east Delhi, and Dilip Pandey of AAP in Northeast Delhi getting 13% as against 28.9 % votes of Congress candidate Sheila Diksit, the contest between the two parties is clearly won by the more experienced Congres party.
Voters in areas like Zakir Nagar, Batla House, Okhla Vihar, Noor Nagar, Shaheen bagh and Abul Fazal in the East Delhi showed a tilt towards
Congress.
The voters in areas like Seelampur, Jafrabad, Maujpur, Mustafabad in Northeast Delhi also considered Congress as their option against the BJP. Does this mean that AAP has lost its Midas touch with the Muslims in Delhi.
Muslims in these areas seems to have preferred Lovely over Atihsi, despite formers short stay with BJP.
The reason was they saw Congress as a migty opponent to give competition to BJP in the Centre. Same was the case with Sheila Dikshit, former CM of Delhi and Congress candidate from North East Delhi where she was seen as a mighty candidate to challenge Manoj Tiwari than AAP's Dilip Pandey.
Political experts were wary that the Congress's decision not to give even a single ticket to a Muslim in any of the 7 Lok Sabha seats would actually
backfire.
A delegation of former Muslim MLAs from Delhi also wrote to party president Rahul Gandhi in April, asking that at least one seat be given to a Muslim candidate. The demand was rejected.
It seems the Muslims voters was unaffected by the development and still preferred Congress.
Moreover, the latest statement of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal that the Muslim Vote shifted to Congress at the last minute might have larger repercussions and might further dent the image of the party amongst the Muslims in Delhi in the next Assembly elections.
