Hashmi son in race for Okhla Vidhan Sabha seat

And Hashmi’s son Farhan Hashmi is being seen as one of the main contenders for a Congress ticket,and Hashmi himself is pushing his candidature. Nearly 65 per cent of the voting population in the area is Muslim. Among the other contenders are Congress councillor from Nizamuddin Farhad Suri and former Okhla MLA Siraj Parcha’s son Mehmood Parcha.

Congress sources said Parcha earlier had the backing of Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit for the Rajya Sabha seat before Hashmi was finally nominated,a week after the National Human Rights Commission gave the police a clean chit in the encounter at Batla House that took place last September.

Another contender is former Badarpur MLA Ramvir Singh Bidhuri,who joined Congress last year before the Delhi Assembly elections. With part of the Badarpur constituency included in Okhla after delimitation,Bidhuri is expected to play a key role in retaining the seat. He was one of the main supporters of East Delhi MP Sandeep Dikshit in the general elections,sources said.

In the last election,Hashmi had managed to scrape through,managing 23,347 votes from the constituency. He defeated BSP’s Brahm Singh (from Okhla) by a margin of barely 4,000 votes. “Hashmi was quite unpopular in Jamia Nagar,particularly after the Batla House encounter. While most of the Hindu votes from Okhla went to Singh,some Muslim groups also decided to back Singh,” said Mohammad Asif,who contested against both Hashmi and Dikshit in the last two elections.