Kapil Mishra, Mohan Bisht secure BJP’s hold in Karawal Nagar and Mustafabad

New Delhi: Grappling with political dilemmas shaped by the scars of the 2020 Northeast Delhi riots and their everyday struggles for development, of the ten constituencies in this region, five—Timarpur, Mustafabad, Rohtas Nagar, Ghonda, and Karawal Nagar—favored the BJP, while the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) managed to hold onto Burari, Seemapuri, Seelampur, Babarpur, and Gokulpur.

BJP comfortably won the two constituencies, Mustafabad and Karawal Nagar, that reported widespread complaints regarding alleged voter list manipulation, including deletions and bogus voting on polling day, February 5. Mustafabad recorded the highest voter turnout in North-East Delhi at 69%. Here, BJP’s Mohan Singh Bisht, who was moved from his traditional Karawal Nagar seat, contested and defeated AAP’s Adeel Ahmad Khan by a margin of 17,578 votes. AAP had fielded Khan after dropping incumbent MLA Haji Yunus. Meanwhile, Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM attempted to leverage dissatisfaction within the Muslim community by fielding former AAP councillor Tahir Hussain, an accused in the Delhi riots case. However, Hussain managed to secure only 33,474 votes, placing third.

Mustafabad has historically seen a divided anti-BJP vote bank. In 2015, the constituency was one of three seats won by the BJP in Delhi, mainly due to a split between AAP’s Haji Yunus (30.13 per cent) and Congress’s Hasan Ahmed (31.68 per cent). However, in 2020, Muslim voters consolidated behind AAP, leading Yunus to a decisive victory with 53.2 per cent of the votes, while BJP’s Jagdish Pradhan trailed at 42.06 per cent. Karawal Nagar saw a high-stakes battle where AAP-turned-BJP leader Kapil Mishra, known for his Hindutva rhetoric, defeated AAP’s Manoj Kumar Tyagi by 23,355 votes. Tyagi had replaced BJP veteran Mohan Singh Bisht, who represented Karawal Nagar from 1998 to 2015 but lost in 2015 to Kapil Mishra, who was then with AAP. In 2020, Bisht regained the seat for BJP, defeating AAP’s Durgesh Pathak by 8,223 votes. Mishra’s victory in this election further cemented his influence in the constituency.

North-East Delhi is home to a significant population of Muslims and Dalits, along with large communities from Purvanchal and Uttarakhand. The region was severely impacted by the 2020 Delhi riots, which erupted in February following anti-CAA protests in Jaffrabad and Chand Bagh. The violence, with Delhi Police standing by, saw mobs vandalizing Muslim homes, shops, and businesses in Karawal Nagar, Gokulpur, Seelampur, and Mustafabad. Kapil Mishra, now a victorious BJP candidate, had made incendiary speeches before the riots, standing next to a Delhi policeman. Mohan Singh Bisht initially protested being dropped by BJP and announced he would contest as an independent. “You have challenged the samaj [Uttarakhand community], not Mohan Singh Bisht. The BJP will lose at least 8-10 seats because of this decision, including Karawal Nagar, Burari, Mustafabad, and Gokulpuri,” he warned. However, within hours, BJP reconsidered and named him its candidate from Mustafabad, where he ultimately secured victory.