Delhi election: Four Muslim faces in newly-elected state Assembly

New Delhi: Four Muslim faces were among the 67 AAP candidates who came out victorious in the Delhi Assembly polls. Amanatullah Khan won from the Muslim-dominated Okhla constituency, defeating BJP’s Braham Singh by a record 64,532 votes.[caption id=“attachment_2089009” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Muslim women show their inked fingers after casting votes for Assembly elections at a polling station at walled city, in New Delhi on Saturday. PTI [/caption] Haji Ishraque popularly known as ‘Bhure Bhai’ emerged victorious from the Seelampur constituency in North East Delhi. He defeated BJP’s Sanjay Jain by a margin of 27,887 votes. In the 2013 polls too, AAP had fielded a Muslim candidate from the constituency but managed fourth position only. Matia Mahal assembly constituency saw AAP candidate Asim Ahmed Khan defeating Congress’ Shoaib Iqbal, who represented the seat consecutively five times. Khan defeated Iqbal by 26,096 votes. Iqbal, who was earlier with JD (U), had joined Congress just ahead of the elections. In Ballimaran, AAP candidate Imran Hussain emerged victorious with 57,118 votes. He defeated BJP’s Shayam Lal Morwal by 33,877 votes. Senior Congress leader Haroon Yusuf ended up being in the third position. The AAP had given ticket to five Muslims in the Assembly polls, down from six in 2013. Mustafabad is one of the three seats bagged by BJP. While Jagdish Pradhan, a non-Muslim face won the seat with 58388 votes, Congress’ Hasan Ahmed and AAP’s Mohd Yunus came second and third respectively. Of the 673 candidates in fray for the 70-member assembly, 68 were Muslims – down from 108 in 2013 Assembly polls when the total number of contestants was 810. PTI