Team Clarion
NEW DELHI – Despite Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s defeat in Delhi elections, the party performed well in the Muslim-dominated constituencies with four Muslim candidates securing victory in Delhi election 2025. In this election, all winning Muslim candidates are from the AAP.
Those of the winning candidates include Imran Hussain (AAP) from Ballimaran, Aaley Mohammed Iqbal (AAP) from Matia Mahal, Amanatullah Khan (AAP) from Okhla and Chaudhary Zubair Ahmad (AAP) from Seelampur.
The Muslim candidates secured their victory despite of the possibility of division of Muslim votes due to Congress and AIMIM’s presence.
In the last elections, five Muslim candidates were elected and all of them were from the AAP.
In 2020, the party won all the seven seats which account for a substantial Muslim population — Okhla, Babarpur, Mustafabad, Seelampur, Matia Mahal, Ballimaran and Chandni Chowk.
This time it won six except for Mustafabad which saw a three-way split of the Muslim vote between the AAP, AIMIM and the Congress.
As per reports, Mustafabad, a split in votes among the three Muslim candidates of AAP, AIMIM and the Congress helped BJP’s Mohan Singh Bisht to win from Mustafabad by 17,578 votes.
The Muslim candidates together polled 1,12,874 votes in Mustafabad. The AIMIM candidate Tahir Hussain, jailed in connection with the 2020 Delhi riots, secured 33,474 votes to finish third.
However, in other seats where Muslims have a sizable population — Okhla, Babarpur, Seelampur, Matia Mahal, Ballimaran and Chandni Chowk — AAP candidates won by handsome margins. In Okhla, AIMIM candidate Shifa-ur-Rehman got 39,558 votes, finishing third.
Although Muslim voters felt that AAP ignored and sidelined their issues during the 2020 riots and played a dubious role in “blaming” the Tablighi Jamaat for the COVID-19 spread. However, in the end, AAP managing to win by comfortable margins.
The BJP defeated the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi and returned to power in the city after more than 26 years, extending its saffron imprint and dealing a devastating blow to the Arvind Kejriwal-led party whose top leadership crumbled or barely made it.
