The much-awaited first result of Delhi elections 2020 is out and Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party looks likely to return for its second consecutive term. With results still coming in, the ‘secular’ camp and the anti-Modi brigade have already started to celebrate.
Taking to Twitter, the political editor of The Hindu, Nistula Hebbar wrote that she overheard few parliamentarians discuss the Delhi Election results. According to Hebbar, who was there in the Parliament to cover the proceedings, few MPs opined, “Seedhi baat hai, Muslim poora polarise hua, Hindu ghanta hua.”!
Overheard in #Parliament : “seedhi baat hai, Muslim poora polarise hua, Hindu ghanta hua.”!#ParliamentDiaries #DelhiResults
— Nistula Hebbar (@nistula) February 11, 2020
According to the trends AAP has been leading from most of the Muslim dominated areas in Delhi. Amanatullah Khan, the most prominent Muslim leader from the Aam Aadmi Party, has won a resounding victory from his own seat at Okhla. He has won the constituency where Shaheen Bagh and Jamia are located by over ninety-one thousand votes.
Even so, the margin of victory is significant as in 2015, Amanatullah Khan won with a margin of sixty-five thousand votes. By the 16th round of counting, Amanatullah Khan had already secured more votes than he did the last time around. This shows that the Muslim vote has consolidated massively in favour of the Aam Aadmi Party.
It is noteworthy to mention that Shaheen Bagh comes under Okhla constituency where controversial Aam Aadmi Party member Amanatullah Khan has registered a victory.
Since December 15, 2019, protesters gathered at Shaheen Bagh and blocked one of the arterial roads in Delhi against the Citizenship Amendment Act. The protest site was accused of being an independent enclave where participation of people was regulated based on their political inclinations and past predispositions. It also witnessed anti-India and pro-Azaadi slogans being chanted by the demonstrators.
Read: Delhi Elections 2020: Muslim consolidation has won, here’s why Hindus should be concerned
In Seelampur, AAP candidate Abdul Rehman triumphed over BJP’s Kaushal Mishra. This was the first result to be declared. Last time around, the AAP candidate had secured 51.25% of the votes and the Congress candidate had won 21.28% of votes. This time around, the AAP’s vote share is likely to increase by multiple percentage points while that of the Congress party will fall as per current trends.
The riot-hit Seelampur is another constituency dominated by Muslims, which once again shows that the Muslims have consolidated massive in favour of the Aam Aadmi Party.
In the run-up to the Delhi Assembly polls, Muslim-dominated areas of Seelampur had seen unprecedented violence led by Muslim mobs to protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act.
On the eve of the Delhi assembly elections, the mosques in the riot-hit Seelampur and Okhla have urged Muslims to vote in large numbers on Saturday, reported Hindustan Times. These are the very areas where Muslim mobs had gone on a rampage and caused riots as a result of their opposition to CAA. It is also worthy to note that Congress and AAP leaders were booked for the anti-CAA riots in these areas by Muslim mobs.
