A man walks past the charred remains of vehicles set ablaze by rioters at parking during the anti-CAA protests in February, at Shiv Vihar area of Northeast Delhi, on June 3, 2020.
| Photo Credit: PTI
Story so far: Scars of the 2020 New Delhi riots notwithstanding, five of the ten constituencies falling in North-East Delhi voted for BJP in these Delhi Assembly polls. BJP has won Timarpur, Mustafabad and retained Rohtas Nagar, Ghonda and Karwal Nagar. Of the seven seats in its kitty, AAP has managed to retain Burari, Seemapuri, Seelampur, Babarpur and Gokulpur. BJP has stormed to power in the national capital after 26 years, unseating AAP which ruled Delhi for almost 12 years.
Home to a large population of Muslim and Dalit communities, North-East Delhi also has a sizable population of people from Purvanchal and Uttarakhand. In February 2020, violent clashes erupted between anti-CAA protesters and Hindu mobs after sit in protests began in Jaffrabad and Chand Bagh. With Delhi police present, mobs vandalised houses, shops, and buses in Karwal Nagar, Gokalpur, Seelampur and Mustafabad – mainly targetting Muslims. BJP’s Kapil Mishra, who is in the poll fray from Karwal Nagar, made incendiary speeches ahead of the riots, standing next to a Delhi policeman.
Here’s a look at the constituencies’ results
BJP
Timarpur: Surya Prakash Khatri defeated AAP’s Surinder Pal Singh closely by mere 1168 votes. Congress’ Lokendra Kalyan Singh who came in third amassed 8361 votes, costing AAP the seat.
Rohtas Nagar: Incumbent MLA Jitender Mahajan defeated AAP’s Sarita Singh by 27,902 votes. Mr. Mahajan, who has held the seat twice before in 2013 and 2020, had lost the election to AAP’s Sarita Singh by 7874 votes.
Ghonda: Sitting MLA Ajay Mahawar defeated AAP’s Gaurav Sharma by 26,058 votes. He had previously defeated AAP’s incumbent MLA Shri Dutt Sharma by 28,370 votes in 2020.
Mustafabad: BJP’s incumbent Karwal Nagar MLA Mohan Singh Bisht, who was replaced by Kapil Mishra for his seat, defeated AAP’s Adeel Ahmad Khan by 17,578 votes. This constituency saw the highest voter turnout in north-east Delhi, clocking 69%. AAP had dropped its incumbent MLA Haji Yunus to Mr. Khan in these polls.
Karwal Nagar: AAP-turned-BJP Hindutva firebrand Kapil Mishra defeated AAP’s Manoj Kumar Tyagi by 23,355 votes. Mr. Kumar replaced BJP veteran Mohan Kumar Bisht, who has represented Karwal Nagar from 1998 to 2015, lost to Kapil Mishra who was with the AAP then. In 2020, Mr. Bisht wrested the seat back from AAP, defeating Durgesh Pathak by a margin of 8223 votes.
On being dropped by BJP, Mr. Bisht announced that he would contest as an independent. He warned, “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 Gokalpuri.” Within hours, BJP named Mr. Bisht as its Mustafabad candidate.
AAP
Seelampur: Zubair Ahmad, who contested from his father’s seat Seelampur, has defeated BJP’s Anil Sharma by 42,477 votes. With a sizable Muslim population, Seelampur was wrested away from the Congress by AAP in 2015 when Mohammad Ishraque won by a margin of 27,887 votes. In 2020, Abdul Rehman defeated BJP’s Kaushal Mishra by 37,075 votes.
Seemapuri (SC): Ex-Congress MLA Veer Singh Dhingan, who joined AAP recently, is leading BJP’s KU Rinku by 10,368 votes. Mr. Dhingan has held the seat thrice before in 1998, 2003 and 2008 before losing to AAP’s Dharmender Singh by 11,976 votes. AAP’s incument MLA Rajendra Pal Gautam resigned in 2022 following controversy over his comments on Hindu deities and his participation in an event where nearly 10,000 people had converted to Buddhism. While he joined Congress in September 2024, the party did not field him.
Babarpur: Incumbent minister Gopal Rai retained his seat by defeating BJP’s Anil Kumar Vashisht by 18,994 votes. The veteran AAP MLA has held the seat since 2015.
Gokalpur (SC): Sitting MLA Surendra Kumar is leading BJP’s Praveen Nimesh by 8082 votes. Mr. Kumar who switched from Bahujan Samaj Party to AAP in 2019, won the seat by 19,488 votes defeating BJP’s Ranjeet Singh.
Burari: Incumbent MLA Sanjeev Jha is leading by Janata Dal (United) candidate Shailendra Kumar by 16,093 votes. Mr. Jha has won the seat since 2013 for AAP.
Published – February 08, 2025 05:02 pm IST