By A. Mirsab, TwoCircles.net
Mumbai: Four out of 10 sitting Muslim MLAs from Maharashtra lost their seats even as nine other Muslim candidates won at the Maharashtra assembly polls, results for which were declared Sunday.
That effectively means, the new Maharashtra Assembly – which has a total of 288 seats – will have just nine Muslim MLAs as compared to 10 in the earlier house. Muslims comprise 12-14 % of Maharashtra’s total population.
NCP’s Nawab Malik, Abdul Rashid Mohammad Tahir Momin and Mufti Mohd. Ismail Kasmi lost their seats while it was Baba Ziauddin Siddique of the Congress who too lost his seat.
On the other hand, the nine others who won the keenly-contested election are: from the Indian National Congress (INC) are Arif Naseem Khan, Amin Patel, Abdul Sattar Abdul Nabi, Aslam Shaikh and Shaikh Aasif Shaikh Rashid. One from NCP to win is Mushrif Hasan Miyalal while Samajwadi Party’s Abu Asim Azmi was able to retain his seat. The most welcome win was that of Yusuf Pathan Waris and Imtiaz Jalil both from the debuting All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM).
The winning or losing margins have varied from seat-to-seat and for many seats, division of Muslim votes was a considerable factor.
NCP’s Nawab Malik lost to Shiv Sena’s Tukaram Ramkrishna Kate from Anushakti Nagar constituency with a margin of 1007 votes. Another NCP leader Abdul Rashid Mohammad Tahir Momin lost the Bhiwandi West seat to Mahesh Prabhakar Choughule of BJP with more than 25000 votes. There were as many as four Muslim candidates from major parties. He had won the 2009 election on SP ticket from the same seat.
Congress’ Baba Ziauddin Siddique lost this election from Bandra West toAv. Ashish Shelar of BJP by more than 27000 votes. Mufti Mohd. Ismile Kasmi, who had won in 2009 from Malegaon Central on Lok Janshakti Party ticket, was in the fray this time on NCP ticket. He lost to Shaikh Aasif Shaikh Rashid of INC with a margin of 16,000 votes.
The winners included Chandivali’s Arif Naseem Khan of INC, who comprehensively beat Santosh Ramniwas Singh of the Shiv Sena by nearly 30,000 votes. In Kagal, Mushrif Hasan Miyalal of NCP had a tough fight with Sena’s Ghatage Sanjay Anandrao. Mushrif won by securing 1,23,626 against Ghatage’s 1,17,692. Azmi could maintain his legacy in Mankhurd-Shivaji Nagar despite division of Muslim votes. Azmi won over Shiv Sena’s Suresh Krushnarao Patil by 10,000 votes.
Late playback singer Mohd. Rafi son’s debut on MIM ticket in Mumbadevi did not affect INC’s Amin Patel, who won against BJP’s Atul Shah with the margin of near 9000 votes. Aslam Shaikh of INC won with a margin of merely 2,000 votes against BJP’s Dr. Ram Barot from Malad West.
Abdul Sattar Abdul Nabi of INC, made a minister in the Prithviraj Chavan’s government few months ago, won from Sillod by 14,000 votes beating BJP’s Suresh Pandurang Bankar.
MIM’s Yusuf Pathan Waris won the Byculla seat (Mumbai) with a slender margin of 1357 votes beating his nearest rival BJP’s Madhu (Dada) Chavan while another of MIM’s candidate Imtiaz Jalil won the Aurangabad (Central) seat by defeating nearest rival Shiv Sena’s Pradeep Jaiswal by 20,000 votes.