Tag: Imran Hussain

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.

AAP Wins Big in All 5 Seats With Over 40% Muslim Population

The most significant victory was that of Okhla candidate Amanatullah Khan, who BJP has long since been trying to pin as the ‘organiser’ of the Shaheen Bagh protests.

New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party consolidated its hold over all seats comprising 40% or more Muslims by winning them all this time. In the 2015 polls, one of these seats had gone to the Bharatiya Janata Party.

AAP has won 62 seats out of Delhi’s 70. BJP has won in eight.

This result speaks volumes about the strategy of AAP going into the polls. Though it was party MLA from Okhla, Amanatullah Khan, who was portrayed by BJP as having “begun” the local women-led anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests in Shaheen Bagh, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and the party never came out in support of the agitation fearing its fallout in the Delhi polls.

Some senior leaders like national spokesperson Sanjay Singh did visit the protest site, but the party kept focusing on its development agenda to seek votes and refused to get drawn into the politics of polarisation.

 

When BJP national leaders like Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah attacked Kejriwal for staying silent when the Shaheen Bagh protesters blocked the Kalindi Kunj road causing reported hardship to people travelling to and from South Delhi and Noida, Kejriwal answered back, asking why Delhi police, which reports to Shah, did not act.

In fact, he accused the BJP of not addressing the demands of the protesters and keeping the blockade going for political interests.

Also read: The Fruit of AAP’s Labour

This argument appears to have ultimately resonated with the voters and stalled BJP’s progress.

AAP ‘best bet’

Also, despite the Congress attempting to take a nationwide lead among political parties on the issue of anti-CAA protest, in Delhi, the Muslim vote in favour of AAP reflects that the party was thought of as the better bet among the BJP and itself.

In Ballimaran, Delhi minister Imran Hussain of AAP defeated Lata Sodhi of BJP by 36,172 votes. Former Delhi minister Haroon Yusuf of the Congress finished a distant third with 4,797 votes and 4.73% vote share.

Shaheeb Bagh protesters on February 11. Photo: PTI

Likewise, in Matia Mahal, five-term legislator Shoaib Iqbal, who had represented Janata Dal, Lok Janshakti Party and also the Congress in the past, this time won on an AAP ticket. He polled 67,250 votes and defeated Ravinder Gupta of BJP by a margin of 50,241. Mirza Javed Ali of the Congress managed to garner only 3,403 and came a distant third.

Okhla candidate from AAP, Amanatulla Khan, after his victory. Photo: PTI

The AAP candidate from Mustafabad, Haji Yunus, came from behind to poll 98,850 votes and defeat sitting MLA Jagdish Pradhan of the BJP by 20,704 votes. At one point, Pradhan was leading in the seat by over 29,000 votes but gradually Yunus rose and then surged ahead.

Amanatullah 

In Okhla, sitting MLA of AAP Amanatullah Khan came from behind to score an emphatic victory over Braham Singh of BJP by over 70,000 votes. At one point, Singh was leading by close to 2,000 votes but then when counting of votes of EVMs from areas considered Khan’s strongholds was taken up, he moved far ahead.

Khan’s record victory ensured that Okhla, which has a majority of Muslims, continued to send a member of the community to the Delhi Assembly. Former Congress minister and Rajya Sabha MP Parvez Hashmi managed to poll just about 2.5% of the votes.

Finally, in Seelampur, AAP won despite replacing its sitting MLA Mohammad Ishraque with Abdul Rehman. Rehman polled 36,920 votes more than Kaushal Kumar Mishra of BJP.

The Congress candidate, five-term MLA Mateen Ahmad, came a distant third. But he still polled 20207 or 15.61% of the total votes. A former Delhi Wakf Board chairman, Ahmad was popular among the Hindus of the area too as he organised one of the largest Kanwar camps in the city.

Delhi Temple Vandalised: Nine Arrested, Amit Shah Meets Police Chief

Police say the situation in Chawri Bazaar is now normal.

New Delhi: Home minister Amit Shah was on Wednesday briefed by the Delhi Police chief on the temple vandalisation in the Chawri Bazaar area. Meanwhile, BJP MP Vijay Goel stoked a controversy alleging the involvement of Delhi environment minister Imran Hussain in the communal flare-up, but the AAP leader denied the charge.

Six more people were held in connection with the incident, which started following a quarrel over parking between two persons. With this, nine people have been held so far in connection with the incident.

Security remained tight and prayers were also offered at the vandalised temple for the first time after the incident, a day after peace marches were taken out in which local MP and Union minister Harsh Vardhan also participated.

Shah had a meeting with Delhi Police commissioner Amulya Patnaik on the incident. The police chief said the situation in Chawri Bazaar’s Hauz Qazi area was now normal and under control, and apprised the minister of the action taken by the force.

“We had a general briefing on the incident and we told him (Shah) that the situation is normal in the area. The briefing was about that. General action has been taken, legal action will also be taken,” Patnaik told reporters in the Parliament Complex after meeting Shah, adding that CCTV footage is being analysed and an investigation is underway.

Politics over the incident continued with former Union minister Vijay Goel accusing Hussain of being involved in vandalism of the temple, a charge refuted by the AAP leader, who also filed a police complaint against the BJP MP for his “baseless allegations”.

Goel, BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP and former president of the party’s Delhi unit, alleged that during his visit to the Hauz Qazi area, locals told him that Hussain “deliberately” gave “communal colour” to the incident.

Denying the allegations, Hussain said he tried to pacify the people at the request of the police.

Reports emerged that the minister was present in the area at the time of the clash. Reacting to this, the Ballimaran MLA said police had called him to the spot as the area came under his assembly constituency.

The Congress too attacked the Centre, alleging that Shah and Delhi Police had taken no action even two days after the temple was vandalised.

Five companies of Delhi Police personnel and paramilitary forces have been deployed. All shops in the area remained functional, police said.

Mandeep Singh Randhawa, deputy commissioner of police (central), said a total of five persons have been arrested and four juveniles apprehended in connection with the incident.

The police on Tuesday had held three people, including one minor, in connection with the incident.

Meanwhile, a PIL was also filed in the Delhi high court, seeking an SIT probe into the alleged conspiracy behind the attack on the temple.

The SIT, duly monitored by the court, must investigate the attack on the Durga Temple and identify the real perpetrators of the crime, the petition said.

Watch: Protests Force Delhi Environment Minister to Stop Tree Cutting

The government had planned to chop trees to widen roads and ease traffic congestion, but protesters blamed illegal driving and sidewalk encroachments for the problem.

Protesters saved 30 trees marked for cutting in south Delhi this week and claimed a victory in reducing the city’s pollution. The government planned to chop trees to widen roads and ease traffic congestion, but protesters blamed illegal driving and sidewalk encroachments for the problem. After three nights of protests and night vigils, Delhi environment minister Imran Hussain met with citizens on July 4. He ordered the forest department to stop cutting trees until he reviews traffic reports.