Known as a stronghold of AAP, the Okhla Assembly constituency will see a fierce electoral battle between the sitting two-term AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan, Congress’ candidate Ariba Khan and BJP’s candidate Manish Chaudhary. Moreover with the entry of Asaduddin Owaisi's All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) declaring Shifa-ur-Rehman as its candidate, who is currently in jail as an accused in the Delhi riots case, the elections are expected to be polarising.
The seat, located in the East Delhi Lok Sabh seat, is an urban area near the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border and is one of Delhi’s oldest inhabited regions along the Yamuna river. It saw a long dominance of the Congress before it went to the ruling party for the consecutive Assembly elections of 2015 and 2020.
In the 2020 Delhi Assembly election, Khan of the AAP secured a landslide victory, receiving 1,30,367 votes while BJP’s Brahm Singh finished second with 58,540 votes, accounting for 29.65 per cent of the vote share. Congress’ Parvez Hashmi managed only 5,123 votes.
Khan also dominated the 2015 polls, winning the polls with 1,04,271 votes claiming a vote share of 62.57 per cent while BJP’s Brahm Singh garnered only 39,739 votes. Congress’ Asif Muhammad Khan managed to secure only 20,135 votes.
The seat encompasses several areas, including Madanpur Khadar, Khizrabad, Jasola, Aali, and Taimur Nagar. It holds significant political and social importance, with a diverse demographic and voter base including a significant presence of Muslims.
The Muslims consists 43 per cent of the seat along with 15 per cent of Gujjars, 10 per cent of Other Backward Castes (OBC), 10 per cent of Scheduled Castes (SC), 6 per cent Punjabis, 3 per cent Pandits, 2 per cent of Sikhs. The seat also has 11 per cent Middle class voters.
According to the Election Commission, Okhla has 3,79,509 voters compromising of 2,19,300 males, 1,60,205 females and 4 third gender voters. While the BJP relied on Manish Chaudhary and the AAP showed faith in its two-term MLA Amanatullah Khan, the Congress fielded Ariba Khan this time.
Some voters think Khan has the advantage because of his prior work, but others think he hasn't really improved the constituency.
Owaisi's AIMIM, however, has announced Shifa-ur-Rehman as its nominee. Rehman submitted his nomination on January 16 and is currently incarcerated as an accused in the Delhi riots case. Noor Fatima, his wife, is pushing for him and is still optimistic that he will win. There are fourteen Okhla candidates in the race.
Concerns regarding the dearth of employment prospects and poor infrastructure have been voiced by Okhla residents, emphasising the necessity to widen roads leading to the neighbourhood, as traffic jams are a daily picture. Sanitation remains a major concern, with garbage and drains often left unaddressed.
"The region has not seen much development in the last few years. Neither schools nor hospitals have been constructed,” Rizwan said.
“It's not that this party or that party wasn't working, but it's the political mindset of leaders. Political parties use minorities as a vote bank in places where they account for a sizable portion of the vote. They don't care about our way of life. In addition to the inner lanes' narrowness, there is overflowing drainage. They arrive, make promises, and then proudly walk around. However, what does that provide us?” he asked.