Women candidates from the Congress have emerged as winners in two wards in south Delhi which includes the Shaheen Bagh area, the epicentre of the 2019 anti-CAA protests, defeating their AAP rivals in both seats in the high-stakes municipal polls.
The Aam Aadmi Party on Wednesday won the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections with 134 seats, and the BJP finished second with 104 seats, while the Congress was reduced to a meagre nine in the 250-member municipal corporation. Former Okhla Congress MLA Asif Mohammad Khan's daughter Ariba won from the Abul Fazal Enclave, bagging 16,554 votes, defeating her AAP rival Wajid Khan with a margin of 1,479 votes.
In Zakir Nagar, Congress' Naziya Danish emerged victorious, edging past her AAP rival Salam Khan with a margin of 473, according to data shared by the State Election Commission. Both these wards fall under the Okhla assembly constituency, held by AAP's Amanatullah Khan.
Shaheen Bagh falls in this area, and massive sit-in protests, led by a large number of women, were held there. Congress' Delhi unit chief Anil Chaudhary, days ahead of the December 4 civic polls, had alleged that Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had "wiped out" the rights of Dalits and minorities in Delhi.
"Arvind Kejriwal made remarks on Nizamuddin's Markaz and against the Shaheen Bagh agitation. He also wiped out the rights of Dalits, women and minorities with the ‘jhadoo’ (broom)," he said. 'Jhadoo' is the election symbol of the AAP. This was also the first civic poll held in the national capital after the February 2020 riots here and as per data shared by officials, 3,360 booths, spanning 493 locations, were identified in critical or sensitive categories for the election.
Mustafabad, adjoining Brijpuri and Shiv Vihar, and other areas in northeast Delhi were severely affected by the riots. Ahead of the polls, many people from the area had said that the memories of the violence might have a bearing on the MCD elections. In Mustafabad, Sabila Begum of Congress emerged victorious, defeating immediate rival from AIMIM with a margin of 6,582 votes.
The Congress won in Brijpuri ward too, with Nazi Khatoon defeating Afreen Naaz of the AAP with a margin 2,118 votes. However, the BJP won Dayalpur and Karawal Nagar East while the AAP was a winner in Joharipur (SC) and Bhajanpura wards.
(With PTI inputs)
