The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has lost the 2025 Delhi Vidhan Sabha election to its arch-rival BJP. Although its seat count has reduced from 62 in 2020 to just 22 now, AAP managed to win 4 out of the 5 Muslim-dominated seats.
The Arvind Kejriwal-led-party had fielded 5 Muslim candidates from the Vidhan Sabha constituencies of Matia Mahal, Ballimaran, Okhla, Seelampur and Mustafabad.
AAP fielded controversial leader Amanatullah Khan is set to win from the Okhla Vidhan Sabha constituency. He outperformed Congress’ Ariba Khan and BJP’s Manish Chaudhary. At one point, he was trailing behind AIMIM’s Shifa ur Rehman Khan.
However, Amanatullah Khan who had threatened Republic TV journalist in the run-up to the Delhi elections later went on to take a massive lead in the Muslim-majority Okhla seat.
In the Seelam Pur Vidhan Sabha constituency, AAP fielded Chaudhary Zubair Ahmad. BJP had named Anil Kumar Sharma (Gaur) as its candidate. Congress fielded Rehman Rehman, who came third in the race.
AAP leader Zubair emerged victorious from this Muslim-majority seat while the Hindu BJP candidate lost by more than 42,000 votes.
The same pattern of ‘voting along religious lines’ was evident in the Matia Mahal constituency where the Muslim AAP candidate Aaley Mohammed Iqbal won the seat by a margin of 42,724 votes. The runner-up was a Hindu BJP candidate Deepti Indora.
In the Muslim-dominated Balliraman Vidhan Sabha constituency, AAP fielded Imran Hussain while BJP gave a ticket to Kamal Bagri. Congress leader Haroon Yusuf also contested from the seat.
Imran Hussain won the seat by a margin of 29,823 votes. BJP’s Kamal Bagri was placed second while Congress’ Haroon Yusuf came third.
The exception turned out to be the Mustafabad constituency, where a split in the Muslim vote between the AAP and AIMIM led to the victory of the BJP candidate.
Mustafabad, which was the epicentre of the anti-Hindu Delhi riots in 2020, witnessed the participation of 3 key parties – AAP, BJP and AIMIM besides the Congress, BSP and other independent candidates
BJP leader Mohan Singh Bisht won the seat by a margin of 17578 votes. A total of 85,215 people voted in his favour. AAP’s Adeel Ahmed Khan received 67,637 votes while AIMIM’s Tahir Hussain got 33,474 votes.
This division in the Muslim vote was caused by ‘vote katwa’ AIMIM and it made it easier for the BJP to clench the seat. Tahir Hussain is an accused in the anti-Hindu Delhi riots of 2020.
Interestingly, AAP won these 5 constituencies of Matia Mahal, Ballimaran, Okhla, Seelampur and Mustafabad last time. It has managed to retain 4 of these seats despite losing the election altogether.
Muslims, reportedly, accounted for 13% of the 1.55 crore electorates in the Delhi Vidhan Sabha election.
