New Delhi: AAP leader Amanatullah Khan is leading against BJP’s Braham Singh in the Okhla constituency. Shaheen Bagh, the epicentre of the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests, is part of this constituency.
Khan tweeted that he is leading by 22,000 votes after five rounds of counting.
5 राउंड के बाद 22000 वोट से आगे चल रहा हूँ।
— Amanatullah Khan AAP (@KhanAmanatullah) February 11, 2020
He was earlier trailing by a narrow margin.
Shaheen Bagh has been at the centre of the Delhi election campaign ever since it became a prominent site of anti-CAA protests in December.
Home Minister Amit Shah, while campaigning in Delhi, had asked voters to “press button with such anger that Shaheen Bagh feels the current”.
Subsequently, the BJP left no stone unturned to make Shaheen Bagh a polarising poll plank, in an attempt to counter Arvind Kejriwal’s personality cult and freebie politics that had made a significant impression on Delhi voters since 2015 when the AAP came to power for the second time.
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In the 2015 elections, AAP’s Amanatullah Khan had defeated BJP’s Braham Singh by over 60,000 votes while two-time MLA from Okhla, Congress’ Asif Mohd Khan was relegated to the third spot with 20,135 votes. Until then, Congress was a popular choice of the Muslim-dominated Okhla constituency. The stronghold ended with AAP securing over 62% of the votes in the constituency.
Just two days before Delhi went to polls on 8 February, Bihar BJP MP Giriraj Singh posted a tweet saying Shaheen Bagh has become a breeding ground for suicide bombers.
यह शाहीन बाग़ अब सिर्फ आंदोलन नही रह गया है ..यहाँ सूइसाइड बॉम्बर का जत्था बनाया जा रहा है।
देश की राजधानी में देश के खिलाफ साजिश हो रही है। pic.twitter.com/NoD98Zfwpx
— Shandilya Giriraj Singh (@girirajsinghbjp) February 6, 2020
यह शाहीन बाग़ अब सिर्फ आंदोलन नही रह गया है ..यहाँ सूइसाइड बॉम्बर का जत्था बनाया जा रहा है।
देश की राजधानी में देश के खिलाफ साजिश हो रही है। pic.twitter.com/NoD98Zfwpx— Shandilya Giriraj Singh (@girirajsinghbjp) February 6, 2020
Long queues were reportedly spotted at polling stations in Shaheen Bagh Saturday. The Okhla assembly constituency recorded 58.84 per cent voting, according to the final voter turnout figures released by the Election Commission. The women protestors voted in batches in order to keep the protest running, while also ensuring everyone gets to cast their vote.
Polarising poll-plank
BJP’s West Delhi MP Parvesh Verma had said during campaigning that the Shaheen Bagh protesters will “enter your house… abduct your sisters and mothers, rape them, kill them the way militants had treated Kashmiri Pandits”.
BJP leader Kapil Mishra had said Pakistan has made its entry in Shaheen Bagh.
“Pakistan ki entry Shaheen Bagh mein ho chuki hain. Delhi mein chhote chhote Pakistan banaye ja rahe hain. Shaheen Bagh, Chand Bagh, Indralok mein desk ka kanoon nahi mana jaa raha hain. Pakistani dangayiyo ka Delhi ki sadko pe kabza,” Mishra had tweeted.
पाकिस्तान की एंट्री शाहीन बाग में हो चुकी हैं
दिल्ली में छोटे छोटे पाकिस्तान बनाये जा रहे हैं
शाहीन बाग, चांद बाग, इंद्रलोक में देश का कानून नहीं माना जा रहा
पाकिस्तानी दंगाइयों का दिल्ली की सड़को पर कब्जा हैं https://t.co/jcq1PgzXb7
— Kapil Mishra (@KapilMishra_IND) January 23, 2020
BJP’s Hari Nagar candidate Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga had said Shaheen Bagh should prepare themselves for a surgical strike on 11 February.
Also read: Supreme Court must stay out of Shaheen Bagh. It can’t care for a child more than the parents