There is no doubt that the ongoing anti-CAA protests in the national capital played a huge role in influencing the Delhi assembly polls. PM Modi had directly pitted the BJP against the anti-CAA protesters on multiple occasions.
"Be it Seelampur, Jamia (Nagar) or Shaheen Bagh, for the last several days, there have been protests over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act. Are these protests coincidental. No, this is not coincidental, it is an experiment," Modi had said during the campaign. Behind the protests, Modi added, is a political design aimed at harming national harmony. In Okhla's Shaheen Bagh, hundreds of people, including women and children, have been protesting since December 15 against the CAA and the NRC.
It was also clear, from the Election Commission data, that minority-dominated seats like Ballimaran, Mustafabad, Matia Mahal and Seelampur recorded the highest voter turnout in the Delhi Assembly elections on Saturday. In constituencies like Seelampur, which is contested between Congress’ Mateen Ahmed, AAP's Abdul Rehman (the party dropped the sitting MLA and went for a new face) and BJP's Kaushal Mishra, violence over CAA had erupted.
This raises the question. How much have these issues of citizenship and perceived fear of loss of identity influenced the Delhi polls?
Some of the constituencies which might have been influenced:
The numbers will be updated as more details emerge
Seelampur: A seat which witnessed anti-CAA violence, Seelampur recorded over 70 per cent voting. AAP's Abdul Rehman will face Congress candidate Mateen Ahmad
and BJP's Kaushal Kumar Mishra. Seelampur had gone to Congress from 2003 to 2013, the golden Congress years under Sheila Dikshit. Abdul Rehman is currently leading in the seat.
Okhla: The fight is between AAP’s Amanatullah Khan, Congress' Parvez Hashmi and BJP leader Brahm Singh. As per latest trends, Amanatullah Khan is leading. Okhla is where Shaheen Bagh, the heart of the anti-CAA protests, is located.
Matia Mahal: Also recorded high voter turnout of over 70 per cent. The seat with an AAP incumbent will face contest between AAP’s Shoaib Iqbal, Congress candidate Mirza Javed Ali and BJP’s Ravinder Gupta. Sporadic anti-CAA violence was recorded in the constituency. AAP's Iqbal is leading in the seat.
Mustafabad: High voter turnout of over 70 per cent. BJP's Jagdish Pradhan is leading with over 30,000 votes against AAP's Haji Yunus and Congress’s Ali Mehndi.
Ballimaran: The Muslim-majority Ballimaran registered the highest voter turnout at 71.6 per cent. Congress's five-time MLA Haroon Yusuf is fighting to win back his seat, which he lost in 2015 to AAP's Imran Hussain. Hussain is leading, as per the latest figures.
The election, largely seen as a battle between the AAP and the Bharatiya Janata Party, which went aggressive during the high-octane campaign, was held on Saturday, sealing the fate of 672 candidates—593 men and 79 women.
Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP sought to retain power on development plank, against the BJP that ran an aggressive campaign centred around the issues of anti-CAA protests and nationalism. Most exit polls also predicted that the Congress is unlikely to open its account even this time in Delhi, which it ruled from 1998 to 2013.
Looking to capture power after 22 years, the BJP had mounted one of the most aggressive campaigns in the Delhi Assembly polls, with Union Home Minister Amit Shah leading the saffron charge on its planks of Hindutva and nationalism, and its strident opposition to Shaheen Bagh protests.
The issue often dominated the political discourse during the campaign, with many BJP leaders targeting the AAP, and the Congress, accusing them of "misleading people" holding anti-CAA protests in Delhi.
A section of voters on Saturday claimed that the prolonged street agitation demanding revocation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was "not an issue in the beginning of the campaign" but "political parties had slowly turned it into one". Ballimaran constituency recorded the highest voter turnout of 71.6 per cent among all the 70 assembly seats in the national capital, while Delhi Cantonment brought up the rear in polling percentage, according to data shared by officials on Sunday.
Okhla constituency recorded 58.84 per cent. Shaheen Bagh and Jamia Nagar fall in Okhla assembly constituency, where hectic polling had taken place till late afternoon. Shaheen Bagh has been the epicentre of anti-CAA protests in Delhi, running into over 50 days now.
In 2015, the AAP had scored an overwhelming victory then, winning 67 seats and reducing the BJP to three.
-Inputs from PTI