New Delhi election 2025 result: INC's Asim Ahmed Khan loses to AAP's Aaley Mohammed Iqbal and BJP's Deepti Indora
In December 2024, Khan switched to Congress and is facing Aaley Mohammed Iqbal, contesting from the Aam Aadmi Party in the 2025 Delhi Assembly election.
Former Delhi minister Asim Ahmed Khan, who left AAP to join Congress in December 2024, contested the 2025 Delhi Assembly election from the Matia Mahal seat, where he faced Shoaib Iqbal's son Aaley Mohammed Iqbal. He had defeated Shoaib Iqbal in 2015.
However, he lost this election, coming third place with 10,295 votes. He was behind Iqbal who won with 58,120 votes and the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Deepti Indora who got 15,396 votes.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), and the Congress were the main parties contesting the election in the national capital.
Matia Mahal, one of the seven Muslim-majority constituencies, is constituency number 21 in the Delhi Legislative Assembly. It has been a stronghold of Shoaib Iqbal, who has represented it since 1993 under different parties, except from 2015 to 2020, when he lost to Khan.
In 2020, AAP won all seven Muslim-dominated seats in Delhi: Okhla, Babarpur, Mustafabad, Seelampur, Matia Mahal, Ballimaran, and Chandni Chowk.
In 2015, Iqbal contested on a Congress ticket while Khan was with AAP. In 2020, Iqbal switched to AAP and reclaimed the seat.
The BJP's vote share in Matia Mahal has also been increasing, making it a key contender in the 2025 election.
Asim Ahmed Khan
Asim Ahmed Khan, a businessman and former AAP leader, holds a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree from Chaudhary Charan Singh University, Meerut in Uttar Pradesh. He was previously a member of AAP's minority wing.
Khan gained prominence in the 2015 Delhi Assembly election by defeating five-time MLA Shoaib Iqbal, then a Congress candidate, by over 26,000 votes. On 14 February 2015, he was sworn in as a cabinet minister under chief minister Arvind Kejriwal andgiven charge of the food and civil supplies, environment and forest, minority affairs, and election ministries.
However, in October 2015, he was removed from the cabinet over allegations of accepting a ₹6 lakh bribe, which he denied, calling it "internal politics" within AAP. In 2016, he accused Kejriwal and other AAP leaders of conspiring to kill him.
The CBI cleared Khan of corruption charges, and he was appointed chairman of the Delhi State Haj Committee in 2019. However, in the 2020 election, AAP fielded Shoaib Iqbal in Matia Mahal, where he secured his sixth term.
In December 2024, Khan switched to Congress and will face Shoaib Iqbal again in the 2025 Delhi Assembly election.
In the 2020 election, Shoaib Iqbal won Matia Mahal with 67,282 votes (75.96%), defeating BJP’s Ravinder Gupta (19.24%) and Congress’ Mirza Javed Ali (3.85%).
In 2015, Khan won the seat with 47,584 votes (59.23%), defeating Iqbal (26.75%) and BJP’s candidate (11.33%).