DELHI: AAP holds minority strongholds, BJP falls short
NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has maintained its dominance in key minority-populated constituencies of Delhi, winning six out of the seven seats it had secured in 2020. Despite dissatisfaction over the party’s silence during the 2020 riots and anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests, the Muslim community largely backed AAP, viewing it as the only viable challenger to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
AAP candidates secured comfortable victories in Chandni Chowk, Matia Mahal, Babarpur, Seelampur, Okhla, and Ballimaran, though the party lost Mustafabad. In 2020, AAP had swept all seven seats with significant margins. However, ahead of the 2024 elections, party leaders had acknowledged that their winning margins might shrink. Despite an underlying feeling of neglect, the Muslim electorate continued to support AAP over other options, including the Asaduddin Owaisi-led All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM), which had fielded candidates in Okhla and Mustafabad.
Zubair Ahmad, contesting from Seelampur—previously represented by his father Mohammad Ishraque—defeated BJP’s Anil Sharma by a margin of 42,477 votes. Seelampur, with a substantial Muslim population, was wrested from Congress by AAP in 2015 when Ishraque won by 27,887 votes. In 2020, Abdul Rehman had retained the seat, defeating BJP’s Kaushal Mishra by 37,075 votes.
In Babarpur, incumbent minister and veteran AAP leader Gopal Rai secured victory once again, defeating BJP’s Anil Kumar Vashisht by 18,994 votes. Rai has held the seat since 2015. In Okhla, a key minority stronghold, AAP’s Amanatullah Khan extended his decade-long reign by defeating BJP’s Manish Chaudhary and AIMIM’s Shifa ur Rehman Khan with a comfortable margin of over 23,000 votes. Meanwhile, in Matia Mahal, AAP’s Aaley Mohammed Iqbal triumphed over BJP’s Deepti Indora by more than 42,000 votes, securing a total of 58,120 votes.
Ballimaran saw AAP’s Imran Hussain winning his third consecutive term, defeating BJP’s Kamal Bagri by nearly 30,000 votes. In Chandni Chowk, AAP’s Punardeep Singh Sawhney continued his winning streak, securing a victory over BJP’s Satish Jain by more than 16,000 votes.
However, in Mustafabad, where the BJP had led throughout the counting process, AIMIM’s Tahir Hussain, a former AAP councillor accused in the 2020 Delhi riots, finished third. The support from the Muslim community, along with Dalits and slum cluster (JJ) residents, was instrumental in AAP’s continued stronghold over these constituencies. Muslims make up approximately 13 per cent of Delhi’s 1.55 crore voters and played a crucial role in AAP’s sweeping victories in the 2015 and 2020 Assembly elections, when the party secured 67 and 62 seats out of 70, respectively. AIMIM, which contested in Okhla and Mustafabad, failed to make a significant impact. In Okhla, its candidate Shifa ur Rehman Khan, also accused in the 2020 riots, finished second behind Amanatullah Khan. Meanwhile, in Mustafabad, AIMIM’s Tahir Hussain lagged behind, while the BJP surged ahead.
