LS polls: Cong gets more votes than BJP, AAP in minority pockets in Delhi

In most of the minority dominated Assembly segments of three Lok Sabha constituencies in Delhi, the Congress got more votes than its rivals, according to the Election Commission data on total votes polled in the parliamentary polls.

In East Delhi's Okhla assembly segment where minorities are in a deciding position, Congress's Arvinder Singh Lovely garnered over 60,000 votes, while Atishi of AAP was on the second spot with over 43,000 votes. BJP candidate Gautam Gambhir got over 35,000 votes in Okhla.

Gambhir, however, trounced Lovely by over 3.91 lakh votes in the constituency. Atishi trailed on the third place, but managed to save her deposit.

In the Chandni Chowk parliamentary seat -- Ballimaran, Chandni Chowk and Matia Mahal Assembly segments -- have domination of minority voters.

Congress candidate from Chandni Chowk, Jai Prakash Agarwal polled more votes than his BJP rival and sitting MP Harsh Vardhan in the three minority-dominated Assembly segments of the parliamentary seat.

Agarwal got 33,440 votes in Chandni Chowk, 52,669 votes in Matia Mahal and 49,036 votes in Ballimaran.

Vardhan managed to push AAP candidate Pankaj Gupta to the third place in the three Assembly segments.

The BJP candidate got 20,224 votes in Matia Mahal, 28,754 votes in Chandni Chowk and 33,723 votes in Ballimaran.

Gupta, on the other hand, obtained 9,152 votes in Chandni Chowk, 8,306 votes in Ballimaran and 6,787 votes in Matia Mahal.

In the North East Delhi Lok Sabha seat, Delhi Congress president and party candidate Sheila Dikshit obtained the highest number of votes in Seelampur (64,382) Assembly segment. Her BJP counterpart Manoj Tiwari got 36,773 votes in Seelampur.

Tiwari, however, gave a neck-to-neck fight to Dikshit by polling 57,827 votes in Babarpur and 73,501 votes in Mustafabad Assembly constituencies.

Dikshit polled 57,227 votes in Babarpur and 69,803 votes in Mustafabad.

Meanwhile, AAP candidate Dilip Pandey bagged 17,803 votes (Mustafabad), 12,564 votes (Babarpur) and 10,091 votes (Seelampur).

These three Assembly segments in North East Delhi have sizeable minority population.

Tiwari defeated Dikshit by around 3.66 lakh votes from the Lok Sabha seat.

A senior Congress leader remarked that the close gap between votes polled by Dikshit and Tiwari in Babarpur and Mustafabad showed that "polarisation" factor was at work. AAP supremo and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had claimed before the results were out that Muslim votes shifted to the Congress at the last moment.

It will be interesting to see how this so-called 'shift' in minority votes to the Congress plays out in the Delhi Assembly polls slated early next year.