The BJP won seven of the 12 wards affected in the 2020 North-east Delhi riots while the AAP won three seats. Incidentally, two of the total nine seats the Congress won came from this region.
Another riots-affected Muslim-dominated ward Jahangirpuri, which interestingly had two Hindu Brahmin candidates — Timsy Sharma (AAP) and Divya Jha (BJP) — fighting it out, saw the former emerging victorious.
Three wards in North-east Delhi which were affected in the 2020 riots, Maujpur and Karawal Nagar East and West, elected BJP candidates. Anil Kumar Sharma of the BJP defeated Vinod Kumar Sharma of the AAP from Maujpur ward. Similarly, Shimla Devi of the BJP defeated AAP’s Asha Bansal from Karawal Nagar east.
The BJP also bagged Karawal Nagar West ward with Satpal Singh defeating Jitender Bansal of the AAP. The BJP managed to polarise the votes whereas the minority votes either went to the AAP or the Congress. The split in minority votes helped the BJP to win these seats, BJP insiders said.
The people of Karawal Nagar, Gokulpuri, Yamuna Vihar had expressed annoyance over the manner in which Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal defended the then AAP councillor Tahir Hussain, who was the prime accused in the North-east riots case in 2020.
In Bhajanpura, AAP’s candidate Rekha Rani defeated Ram Raj Tiwari of the BJP by a margin of over 12,000 votes. Rani got 20,717 votes while Tiwari received 8,710 votes. Bhajanpura was also affected by riots. A majority of the Muslims here voted for the AAP instead of the Congress.
Muslims, however, sided with Sameer Ahmad of the Congress who defeated Aditya Choudhury of the AAP in the Shastri Park ward by a margin of 3,049 votes. Ahmed got 12,053 and Choudhury managed only 9,454 votes.
In Shastri Park ward, the Congress managed to retain its core vote bank.
In Sadatpur ward, which is part of the Karawal Nagar Assembly constituency, Neeta Bisht of the BJP defeated Rekha Tyagi of the AAP by a margin of 4,100 votes. Rekha is the wife of former leader of the opposition of the erstwhile East MCD, Manoj Tyagi of the AAP.
BS Panwar of the BJP defeated Pravin Kasana of the AAP from Dilshad Garden ward by a margin of 944 votes. Similarly, Pramod Gupta of the BJP won from the Yamuna Vihar ward, defeating AAP’s candidate Vaneeta by a margin of 9,455 votes.
In Jahangirpuri ward, AAP’s Timsy Sharma defeated BJP’s Divya Jha by a margin of 1,188 votes. AAP got 11,086 votes as compared to BJP’s 9,898 votes. There was a direct fight between the AAP and the BJP.
The Jahangirpuri ward is considered a minority-dominated area which is part of the Badli Assembly constituency. It was also at the centre of a communal flare up following a demolition drive carried out by the DDA. Communal tensions had erupted following clashes as a Hanuman Jayanti rally crossed the local Jama Masjid in April this year. The incident led to injuries to eight policemen and a civilian.
BJP-led North MCD launched an anti-encroachment drive subsequently on April 20 by demolishing buildings, and shops in the area claiming them to be illegal constructions. The Supreme Court later passed stay orders but around 20 shops and the front of a mosque were demolished by then, with the drive continuing for over an hour despite the apex court’s injunction.
From Seelampur ward, Independent candidate Shakila Begum defeated Seema Sharma of the BJP by a margin of 4,262 votes.