To win back Muslim voters, the Congress is strategically targeting the 32 seats in the national Capital, where the community’s voteshare is more than 10 per cent. Sources said that the party leadership has directed its candidates to personally reach out to Muslim voters and convince them that it is the only party which can address their issues and concerns.
Congress chief spokesperson Ajay Maken said he was quite confident that the Muslims would again vote for his party in the Assembly elections. Despite Muslim votes in large numbers, the Congress could win only eight of the 70 Assembly seats in the last elections. The party again faced humiliation by losing all the seven seats in the city during the lok Sabha elections. It was reduced to third position in all the 70 Assembly segments as a large section of Muslims voted for the AAP in the lok Sabha elections.
All the eight seats that the Congress had won in the last Assembly elections were in areas where the Muslim voters accounted for more than 10 per cent. These seats were Badli with 12 per cent Muslim voters, 20 per cent in Chandni Chowk, 38 per cent Ballimaran, 43 per cent Okhla, 22 per cent Gandhi Nagar, 50 per cent Seelampur, 36 per cent Mustafabad and 10 per cent Sultanpur Majra. Outgoing MlA Shoaib Iqbal, who quit the JD(U) to join the Congress, had won Matia Mahal seat, which has a Muslim voteshare of 48 per cent.
Of the 32 seats, where Muslim voteshare is above 10 per cent, the BJP had won 12, AAP 10 and one was won by an Independent candidate in 2013 elections. Sources said that the Congress candidates would be highlighting the BJP’s “communal agenda” in the Muslim-dominated seats, which were won by the saffron outfit in 2013. These constituencies are Adarsh Nagar, Bawana, Kirari, Uttam Nagar, Badarpur, Krishna Nagar, Shahdara, Rohtas Nagar Ghonda, Babarpur, Gokalpur and Karawal Nagar.
A senior Congress leader said that the party candidates would be aggressively campaigning against the AAP’s negative politics in those seats which it had won in the last state elections. He said: “We have to convince Muslims that they have no future in AAP as it was just the B-team of the BJP. First it was Kiran Bedi, and then it was Shazia Ilmi who joined the BJP.
Also while praising Bedi, AAP senior member Shanti Bhushan had said that fielding her as the CM candidate was a “masterstroke” by the BJP. Speaker MS Dhir and former AAP MlA Vinod Kumar Binny are also contesting on the BJP tickets. All this has to be convincingly communicated to the Muslim voters.” The seats, having over 10 per cent Muslim voters, won by the AAP were Sadar Bazar, Patel Nagar, Vikaspuri, Jangpura, Malviya Nagar, Sangam Vihar, Trilokpuri, Kondli, laxmi Nagar and Seemapuri.
Asked why the Muslims had opted for the AAP in the lok Sabha elections, Delhi Congress president Arvinder Singh lovely said: “The BJP succeeded in spreading this message that the Congress was not seriously contesting against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Varanasi. Since AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal took on Modi in Varanasi, Muslims got the wrong impression that he was the one who was seriously contesting against Modi.”