MCD polls: AIMIM to contest 40 seats, to focus on Muslims and Dalit voters

AIMIM Delhi state president Kaleemul Hafeez said senior leaders like Asaduddin Owaisi and Waris Pathan will join the poll campaign. The seats that the party would be contesting are mostly in Vidhan Sabhas of Karawal Nagar, Okhla, Chandni Chowk, Seemapuri, Mustafabad, Ballimaran, Babarpur, Seelampur, Matia Mahal and Sadar Bazar.

He said the party would primarily raise the issue of several Dalit and Muslim neighborhoods “being left in a neglected condition, and civic services not reaching there like other areas that are being developed”.

“Besides that, the Muslim community has been at the receiving end on several occasions, whether it was the Northeast Delhi riots, Tablighi Jamaat incident, or bulldozers being used at Jahangirpuri by the MCD. We have seen how both parties, the BJP and AAP, have been perpetrators and silent watchers in these incidents,” he added.

Constituting around 15% of the over 2 crore population of Delhi, Muslim voters, till 2013, voted for the Congress in large numbers. The rise of the AAP saw the community’s vote shift to the party, contributing significantly to its phenomenal win in 67 of 70 seats in the 2015 Assembly polls. In the February 2020 Assembly polls, Muslims were again believed to have backed the AAP. The party won 62 seats with 53.57% votes.

Over the years, the AAP has supported the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and started Teerth yatras to Ayodhya. Recently, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had appealed to the Union government and the Prime Minister to print images of Goddess Lakshmi and Lord Ganesh on new currency notes for the country’s “economic prosperity”.