Asaduddin Owaisi's All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) emerged as the dark horse of the Maharashtra municipal corporation elections. As of 2 pm on Friday, the AIMIM was leading in as many as 67 seats across the state, indicating the party's emerging influence among the state's Muslim and Dalit voters.
The Hyderabad MP's party established a strong presence in the Ahilyanagar and Chandrapur municipal corporations for the first time, reports said. In Ahilyanagar, the AIMIM won three seats, while in Chandrapur, the party recorded its first electoral win ever. It is believed that the party took a share of votes that have traditionally backed the Congress and the NCP (Sharad Pawar).
In Mumbai, meanwhile, the party managed to improve its foothold. While Owaisi's party had opened its account in the country's richest corporation in 2017 with just two seats, it has managed to double the tally this time. AIMIM will now be eligible to appoint a group leader and will also be allotted an office at the BMC headquarters, the Free Press Journal said in a report.
In Ward No. 134 (M East, Mankhurd Village), AIMIM's Mehjabin Atiq Ahmed secured 8,414 votes, defeating Congress candidate Benzir Diwate by a margin of 2,216 votes. In Ward No. 136, Jameer Kureshi recorded a massive margin of 9,957 votes over the nearest rival from the Samajwadi Party, the FPJ report added. The other two winners for the party in Mumbai came from Ward No. 137, where Patel Shameer won by 4,370 votes, and Ward No. 145, where Khairunisa Akbar Hussain reportedly won by 2,095 votes.
The AIMIM contested six seats in Nagpur, where party chief and Lok Sabha MP Asaduddin Owaisi addressed a rally during campaigning. According to the latest reports by the agency, the party was ahead in four seats. They were ahead in several seats of the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Aurangabad) Municipal Corporation: 20 in Malegaon, 14 in Nanded, and six in Amravati, among other civic bodies.
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"The ruling and opposition parties are the enemies of development in your areas," Owaisi had reportedly said during the campaign.
In Parbhani, the Hyderabad MP claimed, the Congress winners will join hands with the ruling BJP, Shiv Sena, and NCP. "People should not fall prey to their hollow promises here," he was quoted as saying by PTI.
"With the passage of the Waqf law, non-Muslims will now be nominated to the Waqf Boards," he said. "They will do what they are told to do. NCP chief Ajit Pawar was an ally of the BJP when the Waqf bill was passed. People should vote against such individuals to oppose this black law," he said.
Owaisi also targeted the Shiv Sena (UBT)–Maharashtra Navnirman Sena alliance, saying MNS chief Raj Thackeray had demanded that the azaan be stopped. He also claimed that employees of the Parbhani civic body have not been paid for the past three months.
This is a developing story.
