India News | AAP Should Have Stepped Aside for Direct Poll Contest with BJP: Delhi AIMIM Chief

New Delhi, Feb 10 (PTI) AAP candidates should have stepped aside to allow a direct Assembly poll contest with the BJP in the capital, AIMIM Delhi chief Shoaib Jamai said on Monday, while also accusing the Congress of vote-splitting.

Jamai claimed that the Congress contributed to vote-splitting in 14 seats, benefitting the BJP, as the votes received by the grand old party's candidates nearly matched the margins by which the saffron party won these contests.

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Responding to remarks by AAP's Okhla MLA Amanatullah Khan on Sunday, Jamai told PTI that Khan's superior, "malik" -- referring to his party supremo and the poll candidate from the New Delhi constituency, Arvind Kejriwal -- has claimed that he lost the contest because the Congress nominee, Sandeep Dixit, bagged 4,568 votes.

Kejriwal was defeated by BJP's Parvesh Verma by a margin of 4,089 votes.

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If the AAP truly cared about Muslims, it should not have fielded candidates from Okhla and Mustafabad. Instead, it should have left these two seats for the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad Muslimeen (AIMIM), allowing for a direct contest between the Asaduddin Owaisi-led party and the BJP, which would have resulted in a clear victory for the former, Jamai told PTI.

"If it (AAP) truly cared about Muslims, Adil Ahmad should have stepped aside, allowing us a direct fight with the BJP. We would have won that (Mustafabad) seat," he asserted.

Jamai further claimed that the AIMIM is in a much better position than the Congress in Delhi. Despite this being its maiden venture in the Delhi Assembly polls and the party contesting only two seats -- Okhla and Mustafabad -- it secured 73,000 votes, while the country's oldest political party failed to collect even 20,000 votes from these areas, he said.

The poll results were disheartening given the hard work the party workers put in, Jamai said, adding that yet, the AIMIM stood with the "mazloom" (oppressed), referring to the party's candidates -- Shifa Ur Rehman Khan (Okhla) and Tahir Hussain (Mustafabad), an accused in the 2020 Delhi riots case who is currently lodged in Tihar Jail. Hussain has been imprisoned for five years.

"Our first victory was that because of our efforts, they got judicial custody, met their families and walked in their neighbourhoods after years. If their case progresses in court or they get released, that too will be our victory," Jamai said.

Shifa Ur Rehman Khan was fielded from Okhla against incumbent AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan, who won the election by securing 88,943 votes, while the former polled 39,558 votes and BJP's Manish Chaudhary received 65,304 votes.

Husaain secured 33,474 votes in Mustafabad, while the Congress's Ali Mehdhi got 11,763 votes.

Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Mohan Singh Bisht won the contest in Mustafabad by securing 85,215 votes.

"We are not going to abandon those 72,000 people who have voted for us. We will always be there for them, we will work for them and our party candidates' offices are also open to them," Jamai said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)