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NEW DELHI: The targeted attacks by armed mobs that have engulfed civilians and seemingly the administration since Sunday afternoon have all been concentrated in the North East and East Delhi Lok Sabha seats.
Six of the eight assembly seats the BJP recently won also fall in East and North East Delhi: Laxmi Nagar, Vishwas Nagar, Gandhi Nagar, Karawal Nagar, Rohtas Nagar and Ghonda.
These are the neighbourhoods, shown in the map, from which the most reports have emerged of organised violence amidst police absence, dereliction or complicity:
Maujpur, Seemapuri, Seelampur, Jafrabad, Babarpur, Ashok Nagar, Kardampuri, Kabir Nagar, Vijay Park, Jyoti Nagar, Ganga Vihar, Ghonda, Bhajanpura, Noor e Ilahi, Mustafabad, Gokalpuri, Khajuri Khas, Shiv Vihar, Brahampuri, Chand Bagh, Karawal Nagar, Yamuna Vihar, Gamri, Shastri Park.
As the map shows, so far the mobs have been let loose only east of the Yamuna. These neighbourhoods are in the following seats near the UP border:
North East Delhi - MP Manoj Tiwari, BJP
Seemapuri (SC) - MLA Rajendra Pal Gautam, AAP
Rohtas Nagar - Jitender Mahajan, BJP
Seelampur - Abdul Rehman, AAP
Ghonda - Ajay Mahawar, BJP
Babarpur - Gopal Rai, AAP
Gokalpur (SC) - Surendra Kumar, AAP
Mustafabad - Haji Yunus, AAP
Karawal Nagar - Mohan Singh Bisht, BJP
East Delhi - Gautam Gambhir, BJP
Laxmi Nagar - Abhay Verma, BJP
Vishwas Nagar - Om Prakash Sharma, BJP
Krishna Nagar - S.K.Bagga, AAP
Gandhi Nagar - Anil Kumar Bajpai, BJP
Shahdara - Ram Niwas Goel, AAP
Both answerable MPs are from the BJP. Of the 13 MLAs, 6 are from the BJP and 7 are from AAP.
(They are all men, 11 from high Hindu castes, two from Hindu Scheduled Castes with both confined to SC reserved seats, and one is a Muslim. By contrast in North East Delhi, where the violence has been concentrated, one in six people are from the Scheduled Castes and one in three are Muslims - the highest proportion, together with Central Delhi, in the capital’s census districts. In East Delhi just one in 10 were Muslims and one in six from the Scheduled Castes in the last Census.)
These 13 assembly seats, where the mob violence including accounts of sexual violence has been concentrated so far, also saw significant upheaval and party polarisation in the recent elections.
Karawal Nagar swung heavily towards the BJP, as party veteran Mohan Singh Bisht took back his seat by over 8,000 votes in a swing of over 50,000. Bisht had held the seat uninterrupted since 1998, until AAP challenger Kapil Mishra won it in 2015 by over 44,000 votes. Mishra is now the BJP’s Delhi president. He lost from Model Town by 11,000 votes.
Ghonda swung to the BJP by over 35,000 votes, with Ajay Mahawar earning 28,000 over AAP incumbent Shridutt Sharma, whose victory margin last time was 8,000.
Rohtas Nagar too swung heavily to the BJP, with Jitender Mahajan defeating AAP incumbent Sarita Singh by over 13,000 votes. In 2015 Singh had defeated Mahajan by 8,000.
Gandhi Nagar saw a BJP swing of 13,000 votes, with Anil Kumar Bajpai taking the seat by 6,000 votes over Naveen Chaudhary of AAP. Bajpai had won this seat on an AAP ticket last time by a similar margin.
Laxmi Nagar swung modestly to the BJP, with party state vice-president Abhay Verma securing a narrow victory of 880 votes over AAP incumbent Nitin Tyagi. Tyagi had taken the seat by nearly 5,000 votes last time over BJP challenger B.B.Tyagi.
In Vishwas Nagar BJP incumbent Om Prakash Sharma increased his victory margin by 60% over last time to defeat a new challenger, Deepak Singla of AAP by 16,000 votes.
After his win Sharma told the press, “Arvind Kejriwal is a corrupt man, he sympathises with terrorists, plays role of Pakistan Army spokesman, raises questions on Indian Army and supports tukde tukde gang. Indeed, terrorist is the appropriate term for him.”
(Sahibabad is erroneously marked)
Krishna Nagar stayed narrowly with AAP’s S.K.Bagga, who defeated Anil Goyal of the BJP by 4,000 votes. Bagga defeated Kiran Bedi in 2015 by just 2,000 votes.
Shahdara stayed with AAP’s Ram Niwas Goel but with his margin cut in half. Goel defeated Sanjay Goyal of the BJP by 5,000 votes compared with 11,000 last time.
Gokalpur (SC) stayed with AAP but by a 30% lower margin. Surendra Kumar picked it up by 20,000 votes over Ranjeet Singh of the BJP, compared with Fateh Singh AAP’s margin of 32,000 last time over the same opponent.
In Babarpur Gopal Rai of AAP won by 35,000 votes, about the same margin as last time and over the same opponent, the BJP’s Naresh Gaur.
It was here that union home minister Amit Shah reportedly addressed an election rally saying, “Why do Kejriwal, Rahul and Imran Khan speak in the same language? What is the relation between them? I am not able to understand this. Can the country be safe in their hands?” Shah went on to say, “Narendra Modiji changed the country. Now he wants to change Delhi. This time, press the button of the voting machine so forcefully in Babarpur that the current is felt in Shaheen Bagh.”
Seemapuri (SC) too returned the AAP incumbent Rajendra Pal Gautam with a 15% higher margin of 56,000 votes. In second place was not the BJP, as in 2015, but Sant Lal from the Lok Jan Shakti Party of Ramvilas Paswan.
In Seelampur AAP’s margin went up by nearly a third, as newcomer Abdul Rehman defeated BJP newcomer Kaushal Kumar Mishra by nearly 37,000 votes. In 2015 AAP’s Mohammed Ishraque had defeated the BJP’s Sanjay Jain by 28,000 votes.
Only Mustafabad swung from the BJP to AAP. In 2015 the BJP’s Jagdish Pradhan had taken it by 6,000 votes over Hasan Ahmed of the Congress. This time Pradhan lost to AAP’s Haji Yunus by over 20,000 votes, and the BJP replaced the Congress as runner-up.
Finally, the belt of seats surrounding, on the Delhi side, the 13 constituencies where the mobs have had freedom. This ring of 8 seats has reported relatively less violence so far. It also witnessed less upheaval in the recent elections: all eight seats stayed with AAP, with six giving it higher margins than last time.
Burari stayed with AAP’s Sanjeev Jha, who returned with a substantially higher margin of 88,000 votes to defeat the only other non-BJP runner-up – Shailendra Kumar of Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United). Jha had 68,000 votes last time over the BJP’s Gopal Jha.
Okhla incumbent Amanatullah Khan returned with an increased margin of 72,000 votes over Braham Singh of the BJP. Khan defeated Singh by 65,000 votes last time.
In Chandni Chowk in Central Delhi AAP newcomer Parlad Singh Sawhney defeated the BJP’s Suman Kumar Gupta by 30,000 votes. Gupta lost to AAP’s Alka Lamba last time by 18,000 votes. Lamba contested the elections on a Congress ticket this time, securing 5% of the vote.
In Timarpur Dilip Pandey of AAP defeated the BJP’s Surinder Pal Singh by 24,000 votes. In 2015 Pankaj Pushkar of AAP had defeated the BJP’s Rajni Abbi by 20,000 votes.
In Jangpura the BJP’s Impreet Singh Bakshi lost to AAP’s Praveen Kumar by 16,000 votes. Kumar’s victory margin last time was 25% higher, over Maninder Singh Dhir of the BJP.
In Trilokpuri (SC) new AAP candidate Rohit Kumar defeated the BJP’s Kiran Vaidya by a shrunken margin of 12,500 votes. In 2015 Raju Dhingan AAP had defeated Vaidya by nearly 30,000 votes.
In Kondli (SC) too a new AAP candidate saw a shrunken margin. Kuldeep Kumar defeated Raj Kumar BJP by 18,000 votes, compared with a margin of 25,000 last time for Manoj Kumar AAP over the BJP’s Hukam Singh.
At a rally in Kondli Amit Shah had repeated his “current” request, reportedly saying that the Congress and AAP were opposing the BJP on the CAA, Ram temple and Article 370 for fear of their “vote bank”. “Are you their vote bank?” “No!” “Who is their vote bank?” “Shaheen Bagh!”
Finally, Patparganj gave deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia a scare, returning him with just 3,200 votes over a newcomer, Ravinder Singh Negi of the BJP. Last time Sisodia earned 29,000 more votes than BJP challenger Vinod Kumar Binny.
As we reported, a number of these seats were also the focus of UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s Delhi campaign. He reportedly addressed rallies covering 14 assembly seats, including these in East and North East:
Adarsh Nagar, where AAP’s victory margin shrank from over 20,000 to 1,500
Badarpur, which swung to the BJP by 50,000 votes
Badli, where AAP’s margin declined by a sixth to 29,000
Karawal Nagar, which swung to the BJP by 54,000 votes
Narela, where AAP’s margin dropped from 40,000 to 17,000
and Patparganj, slashing Sisodia’s margin from 29,000 to 3,000.
Deputy CM Sisodia tweeted on Tuesday in Hindi, “It seems monsters have entered into our city. This is not our Delhi’s ordinary populace. Whatever religion, caste, region these people are from they should immediately be apprehended. They should be harshly punished. Whatever the result.”
But they are not all outsiders. As the Indian Express reported yesterday from Maujpur Chowk:
“About 100 metres away, in full view of the police, they flung one (petrol bomb) into a two storey home on the Kabeer Nagar side. A wind blew, and the fire blew out. Another was flung. As they chanted slogans, they identified the homes as they walked.
“‘Ye musulman ka ghar hai,’ they said. Asked how they knew, one man responded, “We are all from here. You can see the shop shutters down. Some are businessmen, some have not gone to office today. Ab toh aar ya paar ki ladai hai.’”
Shoot at sight orders
Azan in Chand Bagh, Tuesday evening - click here to view
Damage after the first night in Bhajanpura and Yamuna Vihar
Mobilisation meeting - click here to view
MLA Abhay Verma leads a march in Laxmi Nagar - click here to view
Rioters in Mustafabad identify themselves as Bajrang Dal and explain ‘Jai Sri Ram’
Kardampuri on Monday
“Carry on the struggle Modi, we are with you”
“I want the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi Anil Baijal to impose curfew as soon as possible,” the Minorities Commission chairman said on Tuesday
Jamia students protest outside CM Kejriwal’s house on Tuesday night
(The Citizen could not independently verify the authenticity of these visuals.)
NSA Doval tells a resident, "Prem ki bhaavna bana kar rakhiye. Hamara ek desh hai, hum sab ko milkar rehna hai. Desh ko mil kar aage badhana hai." (Feel only love. Our nation is one, all of us must live together. The nation must unite and move forward.)
