AIMIM fails to recreate 2014 poll magic this election

Mumbai: The All India Majlis-Ittehadul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) won two seats in the Assembly elections, but failed to cause as much damage to the Congress-NCP alliance as it did in the Lok Sabha elections held in May this year.

That a majority of Muslim voters tried to avoid division of votes and voted for parties which had the capability of forming the government or sitting in the Opposition was the reason cited for the party’s failure to perform this election.

The manner in which Muslims voted this time resulted in the AIMIM’s sitting MLA from Byculla — a Muslim dominated constituency — Waris Pathan losing his seat to Shiv Sena’s Yamini Yashwant Jadhav.

In the Byculla constituency, Mr Pathan managed to get 31,157 votes but the Ms Jadhav won this seat by a margin of 51,180 votes.

This year, the Congress once again fielded former MLA Madhu Chavan but he could get only 24,139 votes. This is the same constituency where actor Ejaz Khan contested as an independent and got 2,173 votes, and gangster-turned-politician Arun Gawli’s daughter Geeta managed to get 10,484 votes.

In the Mumbadevi constituency, where Congress’s Amin Patel won the election, the AIMIM had fielded veteran politician Bashir Musa Patel, but he was able to garner only 6,372 votes.

It may be recalled that the AIMIM could not contest in Mumbra constituency because its candidate withdrew his nomination at the last moment without informing higher-ups and the party did not have time to field another candidate.

However, the AIMIM supported the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate in Mumbra — another Muslim dominated constituency. The AAP candidate lost to NCP’s sitting MLA Jitendra Awhad.