Delhi Election Result: AAP’s Amanatullah Khan wins Okhla constituency, where Shaheen Bagh is situated

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Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate Amanatullah Khan on February 11 won the Okhla Assembly constituency in Delhi with a margin of over 90,000 votes, CNN News18 has reported.

Results to the February 8 Delhi Assembly elections are still trickling in. According to the Election Commission (EC), AAP was leading in 57 of the total 70 seats at 1.55 pm. The challenging Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was leading in 13 seats.

AAP's Amanatullah Khan was contesting against BJP's Braham Singh and Congress' Parvez Hashmi. While BJP is a distant second in the constituency, the Congress has been pushed to the third place.

Okhla is an important constituency, since it houses the Muslim-dominated Shaheen Bagh area, which has been at the centre of anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests in the national capital.

In the run-up to the elections, several BJP leaders had attempted to make the Shaheen Bagh protests a poll plank.

BJP Member of Parliament (MP) from the West Delhi Lok Sabha constituency Parvesh Verma had allegedly said: "Lakhs of people gather there (Shaheen Bagh). People of Delhi will have to think and take a decision. They'll enter your houses, rape your sisters and daughters, and kill them."

BJP candidate from Model Town Kapil Mishra had said, “Pakistan has made its entry in Shaheen Bagh. Many mini Pakistans are being formed in Delhi. Indian law is not being followed in Shaheen Bagh, Chandbagh, Indralok. Pakistani rioters have taken over Delhi’s roads.”

Meanwhile, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who had campaigned aggressively in Delhi – covering around 60 on the total 70 Assembly constituencies – in order to break the two decade exile in the capital city, had said at a rally: “On the one side it’s Narendra Modi, who conducted airstrikes and surgical strikes on Pakistan’s soil to kill terrorists, and on the other, there are these people who back Shaheen Bagh. You have to decide.”

AAP National Convener and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had maintained a safe distance from the Shaheen Bagh protests, saying that "they have the right to protest but not at the expense of causing inconvenience to others", and that if his visit to site of the protest would have helped, he would have "done it in five minutes".