Tag: aap mla amanatullah khan

Amanatullah Khan No Longer Chairman of Waqf Board, Says Delhi Govt’s Revenue Dept

Khan was an MLA from Okhla in the sixth Delhi Assembly, which was dissolved on February 11. He was re-elected from the same seat in the election for the seventh Assembly.

New Delhi: The revenue department of the Delhi government has said AAP leader Amanatullah Khan ceased to be the chairman of the Waqf Board after the legislative assembly was dissolved in February.

Khan was an MLA from Okhla in the sixth Delhi Assembly, which was dissolved on February 11. He was re-elected from the same seat in the election for the seventh Assembly.

The office of the principle secretary (revenue) stated in a letter on Friday that Khan ceased to be a member and chairman of the board with the dissolution of the Assembly on February 11, according to section 14(1) of the Waqf Act, 1995.

“I enjoyed my journey as the Waqf Board chairman from September, 2018 to March 20, 2020. I am happy that I could help the needy and poor,” Khan said in a tweet in Hindi.

As an MLA, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader was nominated to the seven-member Waqf Board and subsequently, unanimously elected as its chairman in September, 2018.

A senior Delhi government officer denied that Khan was removed from his post, saying the panel was to be reconstituted by the new government.

Khan was actively leading the Waqf Board in welfare activities, including for the relief and rehabilitation of the victims of last month’s communal violence in northeast Delhi.

Will AAP’s Young Faces Secure Any Cabinet Ranks?

With four prominent youth leaders having won their seats along with all seven incumbent ministers, the party faces its first dilemma.

New Delhi: With all of its ministers and youth leaders having won elections, a problem of plenty now stares the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as it sits down to formulate its next cabinet. The party bagged 53.57% of the votes and won 62 out of 70 seats in the Delhi assembly elections.

The problem of accommodating dynamic young leaders when senior leaders, already occupying high positions in the government, stake another strong claim is not new to Delhi. This longstanding problem arises because under Article 239AA of the Indian constitution, the number of ministers cannot exceed 10% of seats in the Delhi assembly. Hence, there can be no more than seven ministers in the Delhi government.

All seven ministers retain their seats

This time around, all the seven sitting ministers have won their seats. Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal won the New Delhi constituency for the third successive time while deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, after trailing the BJP candidate for hours, sharply recovered his lead to retain Patparganj.

Health and home minister Satyendra Jain from Shakur Basti and labour and development minister Gopal Rai from Babarpur are two other senior government functionaries who won their seats.

Also read: The Fruit of AAP’s Labour

The other three ministers to sail through were water and SC/ST minister Rajendra Pal Gautam from Seemapuri, law and transport minister Kailash Gahlot from Najafgarh, and food and civil supplies minister Imran Hussain from Ballimaran.

With Kejriwal and Sisodia occupying the top two posts, and Gopal Rai and Satyendra Jain being near certain of retaining their seats, there remain only three slots for all the other winning legislators of the party to eye.

One seat each may be kept for a Muslim, SC

There too, one ministerial berth in Delhi has traditionally been kept by parties for a Muslim. With AAP winning all five seats where Muslims constitute over 40% of the population, it remains to be seen if Imran Hussain will be replaced or not.

One serious contender for the post this time would be Okhla legislator Amanatullah Khan. This time he has scored the second-biggest victory for his party by defeating Braham Singh of the BJP by 71,827 votes. The largest victory margin was of AAP candidate Sanjeev Jha, who won by 88,158 votes from Burari.

With AAP also winning all the 10 seats reserved for Scheduled Castes in Delhi, it would be interesting to see if it would replace its SC/ST minister Gautam with one of the other candidates, if it decides to retain one slot in the cabinet for a member of the reserved category.

That effectively leaves just one open slot on the cabinet for the numerous young and bright leaders of the party who have won.

Youth leaders make a strong case for cabinet berth

One of the most articulate and popular faces among them is Atishi. The Oxford-educated leader was one of the architects of the education reforms in her capacity as an advisor to Sisodia. A member of the Political Affairs Committee of the party, she has now won from the Kalkaji constituency.

Also read: With Another Win in Delhi, Is Arvind Kejriwal Moving to the National Pulpit?

Similarly, Raghav Chadha, who won from the Rajinder Nagar constituency, is a practising chartered accountant who is also the national treasurer and spokesperson for AAP.

Saurabh Bharadwaj is another young face of the party. He was a minister in the 49-day government that was formed after the 2013 win and shot to prominence after he demonstrated, in the Delhi assembly, how electronic voting machines could be hacked. The claim was denied by the Election Commission.

Another claimant for a cabinet position this time is Dilip Pandey, the convenor of Delhi unit of AAP, who won from Timarpur by 24,144 votes. A Poorvanchali leader, his claim to a ministerial berth is likely to be strong since AAP is now nurturing national ambitions and would like to send out a strong message in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Delhi Election: Turnout Figures Cross Halfway Mark as Polling Draws to a Close

Figures in the early hours were exceptionally low, but picked up in the latter half of the day.

New Delhi: The voting for the Delhi assembly elections, which began on a lacklustre note with only around 6%  voters turning up in the first three hours and around 21% by the end of five hours, picked up in the latter half to reach 54.65% by 6 pm.

While 6 pm. is the official time for closure, as per rules, all those who enter the polling station gates by that time are allowed to cast their vote.

It is, however, unlikely that the 67.12% voting mark of the 2015 polls will be crossed this time.

The campaign was one of contrasts. The ruling Aam Aadmi Party focused on development, Congress on Sheila Dikshit’s 15-year-old legacy and Bharatiya Janata Party, on the Citizenship Amendment Act protesters.

Congress’s Chandni Chowk candidate Alka Lamba got into an altercation with an AAP worker outside a polling booth, a purported video of which has gone viral. The worker audibly makes a severely misogynist comment at Lamba.

Also read: Delhi Elections Live: As Day Grows Warmer, Voter Turnout Rises to 28.14% at 2 pm

The video shows Lamba arguing with the AAP worker and then lunging at him.

Voting began at 8 am and will go on till 6 pm.

Over 1.47 crore voters are eligible to vote for these polls. Of them, 81,05,236 are male, 66,80,277 female voters and 869 transgender voters. A total of 672 candidates are in running for the 70 seats.

Party leaders troop in early

However, a large number of prominent leaders and government functionaries were early starters and cast their vote in the first part of the day. Among them were former Vice-President Mohammed Hamid Ansari, Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi, former party president Rahul Gandhi and general secretary Priyanka Gandhi, who turned up with her husband Robert Vadra and son, Raihan.

From the ruling Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi, chief minister and founder Arvind Kejriwal, deputy CM Manish Sisodia and national spokesperson Sanjay Singh were among those who turned up early.

BJP veteran and former deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani and several party MPs such as cricketer-turned-politician Gautam Gambhir and Parvesh Verma, who was barred from campaigning twice by the Election Commission for divisive comments, were among those who turned out to vote.

Congress, BJP bring in new allies

While AAP is contesting all 70 seats on its own, Congress has fielded 68 candidates and left two seats of Burari and Kirari for its ally, Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal. Similarly, BJP is contesting 67 seats.

It has left two seats of Burari and Sangam Vihar for its ally, Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) and one of Seemapuri for Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party.

Also read: BJP, Congress Lay Down Carpet for Regional Allies

But this is the first election in over two decades in which BJP has not allied with Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal), which is its ally in the NDA, for the Delhi election. The two could not reach an understanding following differences over CAA.

Light contest for AAP bigwigs

The most important seat is New Delhi from where chief minister and AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal is contesting. This seat has historically always elected a chief ministerial candidate – in 2008 it was Sheila Dikshit and in 2013 and 2015 it was won by Kejriwal. This time he is facing a lawyer and former youth leader of BJP, Sunil Yadav.

The Congress has also fielded a little known face in Romesh Sabharwal.

Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, who is credited with Delhi’s education reforms, is seeking re-election from Patparganj. His main rivals are once again two little known names, Ravi Negi of BJP and Laxman Rawat of Congress.

Arvind Kejriwal’s road show. Photo: Twitter/@ArvindKejriwal

AAP young Turks have interesting fight on hand

In comparison, there is an interesting contest in the constituencies from where three prominent youth leaders of AAP – Atishi, Raghav Chadha and Dilip Pandey – are contesting. They are among the 15 party candidates who were given tickets in place of the sitting MLAs.

Also read: AAP Drops 15 Sitting MLAs in List of 70 Candidates

Atishi is contesting from Kalkaji, where she is facing Delhi Congress president Subhash Chopra’s daughter Shivani Chopra. The BJP candidate is Dharamveer Singh.

Pandey is taking on former MLA Surender Singh Bittoo of BJP and Amar Lata Sangwan of Congress. Chadha is fighting opposite BJP spokesperson R.P. Singh and former Delhi University Student’s Union president Rocky Tuseed from Rajinder Nagar.

Delhi assembly speaker Ram Niwas Goyal is taking on former Congress minister Narendra Nath from Shahdara. The BJP candidate here is a local leader Sanjay Goyal.

Congress relying on experience

Congress has also fielded some former ministers from Muslim dominated seats. They include Haroon Yusuf from Ballimaran. The five-term MLA is again facing Imran Hussain of AAP, who defeated him last time and then became a minister in the Kejriwal government. BJP has given the ticket to its former MLA Moti Lal Sodi’s daughter-in-law Lata Sodhi.

In Okhla too, Congress has brought in former Delhi minister and former Rajya Sabha MP Parvez Hashmi to contest the polls. He is pitted opposite Amanatullah Khan of AAP, who BJP has been consistently slamming for allegedly organising the Shaheen Bagh anti-CAA protest. The BJP has gone with Brahm Singh.

Okhla area dominated the news flow during the course of the campaign and even before it. The violence inside and outside Jamia Millia Islamia University has hogged the limelight for the last two months.

Also read: Weaponising Shaheen Bagh, the BJP’s Last Resort

Incidents of firing and repeated references to the Shaheen Bagh protests by the BJP leaders, including the Prime Minister, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and UP CM Yogi Adityanath, have kept the focus firmly on Okhla.

Shaheen Bagh on Republic Day. Photo: Vedika Singhania/The Wire

Reclaiming turf

Another important seat for the Congress is that of Gandhi Nagar from where its former minister and Delhi unit chief Arvinder Singh Lovely is contesting. He is facing off against Naveen Choudhary of AAP. Anil Bajpai who won the seat as an AAP candidate in 2015 is this time fighting on a BJP ticket.

For the BJP, the Rohini seat, which is one of the three it won in 2015, remains an important one. Its leader in Delhi Assembly, Vijender Gupta, is contesting from there against Rajesh Nama Bansiwala of AAP and Sumesh Gupta of Congress.

For the election, a total of 13,700 polling booths have been set up by the Election Commission of which 3,141 have been designated ‘critical’ and 144 ‘vulnerable’. From the police point of view, 90 of these have been designated as ‘vulnerable and prone to violence’.

Face recognition system to identify potential trouble-makers

The Delhi police has made special arrangements for areas where it suspects violence or trouble. It would be deploying drones with cameras and also install a high resolution Automated Facial Recognition System (AFRS) for identification of “potential trouble-makers” near and within ‘vulnerable’ polling booths.

Also read: Is Delhi Police’s Use of Facial Recognition to Screen Protesters ‘Lawful’?

The system is capable of working in various light conditions and matches the images of people with those of ‘potential suspects’ stored in the police data. During the anti-CAA protests at Jamia, New Friends Colony and Seelampur, the police had captured the details of nearly 150 suspects and these too form part of this stored data.

60,000 cops on duty

Around 60,000 security personnel are deployed for election duty. These would include around 38,400 from Delhi police, 19,000 from Delhi Home Guards and the remaining from Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF).

Officials said as many as 200 polling booths have been categorised as ‘critical’, and 90 ‘vulnerable and prone to violence’ in North Delhi’s Okhla area (including Jamia Nagar and Shaheen Bagh) and North East Delhi’s Seelampur area which also witnessed protests.

Ahead of the elections, the Delhi police also announced that it would be scrutinising social media posts on polling day to prevent any untoward incident due to rumour mongering. It may be recalled that during the CAA protests on December 19, the internet services were also shut down in several parts of Delhi.

Delhi ACB Books AAP MLA Amantullah Khan for Alleged Misuse of Funds

Officials said Khan allegedly conducted “irregular recruitment” to the Waqf Board.

New Delhi: The Anti Corruption Branch (ACB) in poll-bound Delhi booked AAP MLA and Waqf Board chairman Amantullah Khan on Wednesday for alleged misuse of funds.

Officials said Khan allegedly misappropriated Waqf Board funds and conducted “irregular recruitment”.

An officer requesting anonymity said, “We have registered an FIR against him and are currently carrying related procedures. We are ascertaining the total amount of misappropriated funds and other irregularities he committed.”

ACB’s move comes just days before Delhi Assembly Elections 2020. Amanatullah Khan is seeking re-election from Delhi’s Okhla Assembly constituency. Okhla is currently the hotbed of  Anti-CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) protests.

Delhi Elections: How BJP and Its Leaders Are Trying to Fan Communal Sentiments

From sharing social media posts with communal dog-whistles to promises of targeting mosques allegedly built on government land, the saffron party is playing by its rule book.

New Delhi: On Monday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Delhi unit, from its official handle, tweeted a communally sensitive meme, which has potential to attract action under section 153 A of Indian Penal Code (IPC) for disturbing public tranquillity and spreading communal hatred. The meme has two pictures: the first is an image of a burning bus and the second shows Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal speaking with a skull cap on. Above the picture of the burning bus, “art” is written and above Kejriwal’s picture, in which Okhla-Jamia Nagar MLA Amanatullah Khan can also be seen, “artist” is written.


This is a clear case of “dog-whistle” politics and an attempt to blame Muslims, especially Jamia students, for the violence which took place last month in Jamia Nagar and the neighbouring New Friends Colony during an anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) protest. This despite the fact that not a single person arrested for the violence was a student of Jamia. The party has been criticised for this tweet by a section of Twitter users but instead of removing or issuing any clarification, it has been pinned on the handle to highlight it.

Not the first time

What is important to remember is that this is not the first time that the BJP has indulged in communal tactics like these. Ahead of the Delhi assembly polls, the party and its leaders have been continuously trying to fan communal sentiments. Just after the violence in Jamia Nagar, the party on its official Instagram account posted a cartoon showing Kejriwal and a man wearing a stereotypical Muslim dress – a skull cap, a green scarf around his shoulder, and a long beard – setting a bus on fire, while a lady is trapped inside and the Delhi Police is trying to douse the fire.

Photo Courtesy: TheLogicalIndian.com

Last week, BJP MP and an aspirant for the Delhi CM post, Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma promised to demolish religious structures built on government land if his party comes to power. “The government land on which religious places are constructed will be vacated after BJP forms government in Delhi. Complaints have come regarding more than 54 mosques and madrassas on government land in Delhi. The list has already been given to the Lt Governor,” Verma tweeted in Hindi. Verma has also retweeted the BJP Delhi unit’s tweet which has communal overtones.


On Monday, according to a report by news agency PTI, he said if he receives any complaints about encroachment of government land in Delhi by any temple or gurudwara, he will take up the matter with authorities. “But no temple or gurudwara are found on government land, only mosques are found on government land,” he had said at a press conference.

Also Read: Post CAA, BJP-Linked WhatsApp Groups Mount a Campaign to Foment Communalism

Notably, Verma has been raising the issue of alleged encroachment of government land by mosques, Muslim graveyards, madrassas and Imambaras for quite some time. In June last year, he wrote to Lt Governor Anil Baijal seeking action against mosques and graveyards allegedly constructed on government land. He had submitted a list of 54 such encroachments to the LG for action. Another BJP MP and the party’s Delhi president, Manoj Tiwari, had also made a similar allegation about other areas of Delhi.

However, a fact-finding report by the Delhi Minorities Commission into the matter found that none of the “masjids, mazaars, madrasas, or graveyards” that Verma named were built illegally. Neither were they encroaching government land, as the MP claimed. Moreover, the commission’s report noted that Verma’s allegations created a sense of fear in the Muslim community. According to the commission, there are “sufficient grounds to initiate legal proceedings” against Verma, who it believes was responsible for triggering communal discord.

Research shows BJP benefits from riots

Similarly, a day before the announcement of the date for Delhi’s assembly elections, Union minister Amit Shah while addressing a meeting of booth level workers of the party rhetorically asked the people of Delhi, “Kya aap aisi sarkar chahte hain jo Dilli mein dange karwaye? (Do you want a government in Delhi, which conducts riots?)”

Union home minister Amit Shah. Photo: PTI

Ironically, research shows that the BJP had been the biggest political beneficiary of violence ahead of elections. A study conducted by researchers from Yale University said “the BJS/BJP saw a 0.8 percentage point increase in their vote share following a riot in the year prior to an election. The polarization of the electorate induced by riots disadvantages Congress in subsequent elections, making it counter-productive for the party’s affiliates to instigate riots following an electoral loss.” Similarly, another study by two researchers of Oxford University found that fatalities and violence against the minority community helped the BJP win elections.

Also Read: Gujarat Riots Spontaneous Says Nanavati Panel, But Electoral Data Shows Method in Madness

On Thursday morning, BJP leader and the party candidate from Model Town in north Delhi, Kapil Mishra tweeted saying the day of Delhi polling will be akin to India-Pakistan match. “India vs Pakistan, February 8 in Delhi. India and Pakistan will compete on the streets of Delhi,” tweeted Mishra.

Later, in another tweet he alleged that, AAP and Congress Party have created mini-Pakistan like Shaheen Bagh. “To answer that India will stand up on 8 February. Every-time traitors will create Pakistan in India, India of patriots will rise up,” Mishra tweeted in Hindi, attacking AAP leader and deputy chief minister of Delhi Manish Sisodia. According to a tweet by CNN News18, the AAP leader has said, “I stand with the people of Shaheen Bagh.”

The Delhi assembly elections will be held on February 8 and results for the 70-seat house will be declared on February 11. In the last assembly election, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won 67 seats, BJP 3 and Congress could not open its account. Ashish Ranjan, a researcher and election analyst, predicts that if compared to the 2019 general election, the BJP is likely to lose between 20-25% of votes in the assembly election. AAP is likely to gain 30-35% votes from its Lok Sabha tally, he says. In the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP received 57% of the total votes polled in Delhi, while the Congress and AAP received 23% and 18% respectively.

A survey conducted by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS)- Lokniti says, “Delhi voters are more likely to vote on the basis of the work done by the AAP in the capital, rather than looking at the work done by Mr Modi at the Centre.” During the survey, “While 55 per cent said they would be voting looking only at the work done by the AAP in Delhi, only 15 per cent said they would vote on the basis of the work done by Mr Modi at the Centre. Thus, even if the fight becomes one between Mr Kejriwal and Mr Modi, the former looks stronger on his own turf.”

Meanwhile, in the days to come, several star campaigners, including chief ministers of BJP-ruled states, Union ministers and senior leaders, will arrive in Delhi to take on Kejriwal and AAP. Reports suggest that the BJP has made big plans to wrest Delhi from Kejriwal and AAP. The 40 “star campaigners” list is led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Note: The article was first published on January 23 morning and later updated with Kapil Mishra’s tweets.