New Delhi: Last Friday, hundreds gathered at Batla House square in Okhla for a Congress rally, which was to be addressed by Kanhaiya Kumar, the former president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) and now a star campaigner for the party.
However, hours passed and there was no sign of Kanhaiya. Sensing that the crowd’s patience was wearing thin, the local Congress unit attempted to contact him but received no response. They waited for him to show up till 10 pm, after which the use of public address systems or loudspeakers is prohibited, but to no avail.
Speaking to ThePrint, Congress candidate from the Okhla constituency Ariba Khan said, “He must have been stuck in some other place as campaigning had peaked by then. Traffic in Delhi is also a mess. The fact is people flock to listen to him.”
Adding that there were “coordination issues”, Ariba said, “Naturally I had to inform the party leadership that something like this happened.”
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But the no-show has emerged as more than fanning criticism against him in Congress circles over what is perceived to be his ‘inaccessibility’ and ‘autocratic’ way of functioning. ThePrint earlier reported that, at the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), the student wing of the Congress, where he is the All India Congress Committee in-charge, there are voices questioning his style of functioning.
Ahead of the Delhi polls, while Kanhaiya has campaigned in areas like Sangam Vihar and Madipur, his absence in northeast Delhi, from where he contested the 2024 Lok Sabha polls was also conspicuous. He finished second with 44 percent votes behind Bharatiya Janata Party’s Manoj Tiwari in the elections last year.
Speaking to ThePrint on condition of anonymity, a Congress functionary from the Delhi unit asked, “Why did Kanhaiya not contest anywhere in Northeast Delhi? He got a substantial number of votes. Muslims voted for him in large numbers. Surely, his presence there could have helped.”
The functionary highlighted how while Kanhaiya “may claim credit” for NSUI winning two office-bearer posts at the Delhi University Students’ Union in November 2024, he has not visited the campus “even once” since the results were declared.
Kanhaiya did not respond to ThePrint’s requests for comment. However, when asked why he was missing from action ever since losing the Lok Sabha polls, Kumar recently told News24, “These days being active on social media has become the yardstick. So if someone is not posting on social media, but working for ideology quietly on the ground, he will be considered inactive.”
Also Read: ‘Inaccessible, autocratic’ or ‘fighting for values’? Kanhaiya Kumar ruffles feathers in Congress
Criticism of Congress candidate
In Okhla, though, his absence at the rally could not have come at a worse time for the Congress, which faces the possibility of being relegated to the margins in the Muslim-dominated seat.
There is a growing perception that the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) candidate, Shifa-ur-Rehman, accused in a Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) case related to the 2020 Delhi riots, has emerged as the main contender against the Aam Aadmi Party incumbent MLA Amanatullah Khan. The 51-year-old won the Okhla constituency seat in both 2015 and 2020 by a margin of 64,532 and 71,827 votes respectively.
The Congress leaders in the area are not mincing their words. Among them is Syed Fouzul Azeem, alias Arshi, a prominent businessman, who runs multiple canteens in the Jamia Millia Islamia University (JMI).
“The leadership did not listen to us despite our categorical feedback about its poor choice of candidate. They picked a name whose family is discredited in the area,” Azeem told ThePrint.
Ariba Khan, 31, is a local councillor of the Congress. She is the daughter of former party MLA Asif Mohammad Khan, whose brother Arif Mohammed Khan is the current Bihar governor.
“It’s time the party thinks beyond the Khan family or the members of former party MLA Parvez Hashmi, whose daughter-in-law Ishrat Jahan’s name was also considered,” said a prominent local Congress leader, who campaigned for Ariba despite not agreeing with the party’s choice.
Jahan is also an accused in a case related to the 2020 Delhi riots. While she is out on bail, AIMIM’s Rehman, 48, was granted five days of custody parole to campaign.
Another Congress leader, who did not wish to be named, said that the leadership had faced pushback from party members when it had floated the possibility of naming either Jahan or Rehman as Okhla candidates. They felt it would cost the party the Hindu votes in the area.
More than other factors though, it is Rehman’s strong ties with the JMI Alumni Association (AAJMI) that has provided a fillip to his campaign.
Rehman has, in the past, served as the president of the association and its members are mobilising public opinion in his favour across the Muslim-dominated neighbourhoods of the constituency.
BJP eyes opportunity
Meanwhile, the BJP also sees an opportunity to capture the seat because of the fragmented Muslim opinion in the area.
The Okhla constituency is divided into five wards of which, while three wards have a sizeable presence of Hindus, two are entirely Muslim dominated.
In 2022, the AAP and the Congress alleged that the BJP had resorted to gerrymandering—manipulating boundaries for political gains—while carrying out a delimitation of municipal wards in the Okhla constituency. The five wards are Sarita Vihar, Zakir Nagar, Abul Fazal Enclave and Madanpur Khadar West, and Madanpur Khadar East.
This has added another layer of complexity to the election in the constituency, where the Congress lost and the Rashtriya Janata Dal won in a 2009 by-election due to a split in Muslim votes between the two parties and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). Even in 2008, the Congress nearly lost the seat for a similar reason.
“Delimitation and a split in Muslim votes are not the only reasons why the BJP might win. It’s also because of the fact that Manish Chaudhary (37), the party’s candidate, has been with the Congress in the past,” a local resident said.
“He has friends across the area and not just in the Hindu pockets. As a result, there is no mobilisation or consolidation just to defeat the BJP’s candidate.”
According to the resident the AIMIM’s limitation is that it is “essentially fighting in only two Muslim-dominated wards of the area, while the AAP has voters across five wards”.
Among the factors that the AIMIM is banking on is the fact that hundreds of Muslim families from riot-hit parts of northeast Delhi have settled in Okhla.
“Muslims who were not directly affected by the riots may still side with the AAP. But those who were in the line of violence may find it difficult to stand with the party which had gone quiet when they needed it the most,” said Shariq, a local trader in Shaheen Bagh.
AIMIM president and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi has campaigned extensively in the area over the past few weeks. Another Delhi-riot accused Tahir Hussain, who is contesting from Mustfabad, is the only other candidate that the AIMIM has in the fray this time.
According to an AAJMI member, “The AIMIM cadre comprises not only its old faces in the area who switched to the AAP in the last two years, but it’s also group of former and current Jamia students and prominent activists who were behind the anti-CAA protests in the area, including Shaheen Bagh.”
Therefore, the member said, the support is more for Rehman “the person”, rather than the AIMIM, “about which the Muslims remain suspicious”.
“He is also drawing a lot of emotional traction as his wife and children are also making themselves seen in his campaign,” the AAJMI member told ThePrint.
Ariba, however, stressed that it was not just Rehman who was getting AAJMI’s support. “I am also an alumna of Jamia. Yes, since Rehman was its president, he is getting the backing of some of its members. But, a section of AAJMI is also involved in my campaign.
She claimed that Owaisi was using Rehman for political gains. “Where was he over the last five years when Rehman was in jail?”
Delhi votes in the election on 5 February with results expected on 8 February.
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)
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