If the failure of AAP and the Congress to join hands for the Delhi Assembly election helped the BJP score a decisive victory, a Hyderabad factor, too, made its presence felt in the capital contest. The Asaduddin Owaisi-led All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) did not win any seat, but both its candidates finished second runners-up. In one of the seats, the division of votes paved the way for BJP’s win in a constituency with a significant minority population.
AIMIM fielded two candidates in the Delhi election — Shifa Ur Rehman Khan from Okhla and Tahir Hussain from Mustafabad. Both its candidates have been named as accused in cases linked to the 2020 Delhi riots and are currently in jail. Both the AIMIM candidates managed to push the Congress to the fourth spot and finished third.
In Okhla, AAP leader and sitting MLA Amanatullah Khan won by 23,639 votes. The BJP’s Manish Chaudhary finished second and Shifa Ur Rehman Khan, currently in Tihar Jail, got 39,558 votes. The Congress’s Ariba Khan got 12,739 votes. Despite the division in minority votes, three-time MLA Khan managed to hold on to his seat. But his winning margin dropped by more than 50,000 votes.
The Mustafabad seat saw a more exciting contest. In a constituency with a nearly 40 per cent Muslim population, BJP’s Mohan Singh Bisht won by a margin of 17,578 votes. The AAP’s Adeel Ahmed Khan got 67,637 votes, AIMIM’s Tahir Hussain cornered 33,474 votes and the Congress’s Ali Mehdi received 11,763 votes. The division of Opposition votes helped the BJP secure a comfortable win.
In the run-up to the election, the two AIMIM candidates were granted interim bail for campaigning. They held several roadshows with party leaders, including its chief and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi.
As for Mustafabad, another subplot played out within the BJP. Mr Bisht was sitting MLA from Karawal Nagar from 1998 to 2015. In the 2015 polls, Kapil Mishra, then with AAP and now with BJP, defeated him. When Mr Mishra switched to the BJP, Mr Bisht won the seat again in 2020. This time, Mr Mishra was chosen BJP’s candidate from Karawal Nagar. Mohan Singh Bisht was unhappy and said the BJP was making a mistake. To pacify him, the BJP fielded him in Mustafabad and the gamble paid off.