delhi assembly election 2025 – Effect of hill voters? When the ticket was canceled from Karawal Nagar, BJP had to field Mohan Singh Bisht from Mustafabad – mohan singh bisht mustafabad delhi assembly election 2025 bjp karawal nagar pahadi voters ntcpbt

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been out of power in Delhi since 1998. BJP, which is trying to capture the throne of Delhi after ending its 27-year long exile, had released the second list of candidates for Delhi elections on January 11. In this list, BJP had canceled the ticket of five-time MLA Mohan Singh Bisht from Karawal Nagar and declared Kapil Mishra from Aam Aadmi Party as its candidate.

Mohan Singh Bisht had announced to contest the elections as an independent candidate after being denied ticket from Karawal Nagar. The very next day BJP released the third list of names of a candidate. Mohan Singh Bisht’s name was in this list as a candidate from Mustafabad seat. If Mohan Singh Bisht’s ticket was canceled from Karawal Nagar, why did BJP have to field him from Mustafabad?

1- Effect of hill voters

According to estimates, there are about 30 lakh hill voters in Delhi, out of which the number of people coming from Uttarakhand is said to be more than 20 lakh. Around 10 lakh hill voters belong to Himachal Pradesh. Overall, though this number of voters may appear small, this class plays a decisive role in deciding victory or defeat on many seats. If we talk about Karawal Nagar itself, there are about 22 percent hill voters in this area. A similar number of hill voters are said to be in Mustafabad assembly constituency from where BJP has now fielded Mohan.

2- Big face of hill politics

Mohan Singh Bisht is considered a big face of hill politics of Union Territory of Delhi. Except for the 2015 Delhi elections, Mohan Singh Bisht was MLA from Karawal Nagar seat five times from 1998 to 2020. In the 2015 elections, Mohan was defeated by Kapil Mishra. Then Kapil had contested on the ticket of Aam Aadmi Party. Mohan Singh Bisht and Kapil Mishra are not only old rivals, despite being in the same party, the differences between the two leaders are well known. After the ticket was canceled, Mohan termed it as the party’s mistake and announced to file independent nomination.

3- Edge on the pitch of hill politics

Organizations related to the Pahari community have been demanding fielding Pahari candidates on at least four to five seats. Manvendra Dev Manral, General Secretary of Uttarakhand Mahapanchayat, had openly expressed this wish and said that there are many seats where the hill voter is decisive. People of the hill community were considering Mohan Bisht’s ticket as fixed.

Also read: Delhi BJP announced another candidate, gave ticket to MLA Mohan Singh Bisht from Mustafabad.

Mohan Singh Bisht had taken a rebellious stance by expressing his displeasure over the ticket being cut. This could have harmed BJP’s prospects due to the displeasure of hill voters in Karawal Nagar as well as in many seats. At a time when Aam Aadmi Party has not given a single candidate from the hill community. BJP did not want to lose its edge by keeping a strong man like Mohan Singh Bisht away from the election field.

Also read: Why did BJP field Kapil Mishra in Karawal Nagar, that too by canceling the ticket of the sitting MLA?

4- Hill voters are decisive on these seats

Pahari voters are not effective only on Karawal Nagar or Mustafabad assembly seats. They have strong influence on about half a dozen seats. These include seats like Rohtash Nagar, Shahdara, Gokulpuri, Babarpur to Patparganj. In the 2020 elections on Patparganj seat, BJP’s Ravi Negi gave a tough competition to the heavyweight candidate like the then Deputy CM Manish Sisodia and if Sisodia could win by a little more than three thousand votes, then the hill voters are considered to be the main role behind this. .