How AAP upset Cong's apple cart

Dalits, a traditional vote bank of the Congress, have moved away from the party

To improve its tally in the recent city Assembly elections, the Congress had zeroed in on about 30 constituencies. The party put its limited resources and personnel in these constituencies but the gambit failed miserably.

The Congress’ vote share fell to a single digit — from 25 per cent to nine per cent — and the gap between the winning Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate and the Congress became a staggering 45 per cent. The AAP doubled its vote share at the expense of the Congress.

A close look at these select constituencies reveals Dalits, a traditional vote bank of the Congress, have moved away. Dalits also have deserted the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Again in erstwhile Congress strongholds in Muslim-dominated Matia Mahal and Seelampur, the Muslims deserted the Congress and flocked to the AAP. This resulted in the AAP vote share going up four-fold in these constituencies.  

In Badli constituency, Northwest Delhi, Congress  candidate Devender Yadav had won two terms. The party was confident of bagging the seat. In 2013, Yadav had won the seat by polling 54,372 votes, which was 45 per cent of the votes. The AAP at that time got 31,098 votes — about 26 per cent.

This time, however, the AAP won the seat, bagging 72,795 votes. The AAP doubled its vote share to 51 per cent, whereas that of the Congress nearly halved to 26 per cent, with 27,419 votes.

In the reserved constituency of Bawana, the Dalit vote moved from the Congress and the BSP to the AAP. From 41,818 votes in 2013, the Congress had been second runner-up, while the BJP won the seat. In 2015, AAP candidate Ved Prakash trounced both to manage a whopping 109,259 votes, more than doubling his vote share.

Shoaib Iqbal, five-time MLA  from Matia Mahal, was with the Janata Dal (United) in 2013. In November last year, he joined the Congress. In 2013, the Congress candidate was defeated by a slender margin of only 2,531 votes. In this election, Shoaib Iqbal was trounced by the AAP netting 60 per cent of the vote. The Congress lost by 26,696 votes.  

In Seelampur, the AAP vote share saw a massive rise of 342 per cent, trouncing Congress strongman Chaudhary Mateen Ahmed. In 2013, Ahmed had cornered 47 per cent of the vote, this time he was reduced to the third position with just 21 per cent. Some of the other minority seats which the Congress was banking on were Mustafabad, Okhla and Ballimaran; it lost all heavily.

Congress’ chief ministerial face Ajay Maken, who contested from Sadar Bazar, was relegated to third position, with the difference in votes between the AAP candidate and him being 51,176 votes.