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Delhi polls: BJP swings Mustafabad on ‘Bisht brand, post-riots demography’
Perceived to be a Muslim-dominated seat, Mohan Singh Bisht managed to win the seat convincingly with 85,215 votes
Even in the wave election of 2015, when Delhi had given the maximum ever tally of seats to a party (67), the Bharatiya Janata Party won the Mustafabad seat.
Then, fresh from its 2013 electoral debut -- in which the political greenhorns wrested power from the three-term chief minister Sheila Dikshit of the Congress -- the Aam Aadmi Party won 67 of the 70 seats in the Delhi assembly. The BJP managed just three seats, that of Vishwas Nagar (OP Sharma), Rohini (Vijender Gupta) and Mustafabad (Jagdish Pradhan).
In 2020, the AAP’s Haji Yunus wrested the seat from the BJP. The seat was again in the spotlight this time with the BJP giving the ticket to Mohan Singh Bisht -- a five-term veteran from the Karawal Nagar seat -- and the All India Majlis Ittehad-ul Muslimeen (AIMIM) fielding Tahir Hussain, an accused in several Delhi riots cases.
Perceived to be a Muslim-dominated seat, Bisht managed to win the seat convincingly with 85,215 votes, defeating his nearest Congress rival Adeel Ahmed Khan by 17,578 votes. Hussain, logged an impressive 33,474 votes, stood third. Including the Congress’ Ali Mehdi who got 11,763 votes, three of the top four candidates were Muslims.
Speaking to HT, Bisht attributed his win to the work he had done in the area and the cavassing by Union home minister Amit Shah. “I have built roads in Karawal Nagar, ensured drains were cleaned and covered, built schools and a lot of other things. People of Mustafabad know that,” he said.
After the riots, nearly 10% of the original population had left the area “which also helped me”, Bisht said.
He said he wanted to change the area’s name. “I want the name to be either Shiv Puri or Shiv Vihar. Because of the name Mustafabad, educated people do not want to come and settle here,” he said.
