Owaisi claims victory with 2 seats in Maharashtra
Hoping to become the leader of Maharashtra politics, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi has fielded his candidates for 17 seats. Of them, Muslim candidates are trying their luck in 13 seats, while tickets have been given to people from the Dalit community in 4 seats. AIMIM has fielded its candidates in two seats in Marathwada’s Aurangabad and party chief Owaisi has also claimed victory in both the seats. He said our two MLAs will win in Aurangabad.
Asaduddin Owaisi did not gain the confidence of thus winning the two Aurangabad seats in the Maharashtra Assembly elections, between the BJP-led Grand Alliance and the Congress-led Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance, but the Lok election results Sabha held five months ago that he did give indications. This is the reason why Owaisi confidently claims victory in Aurangabad.
AIMIM’s strong challenge in Aurangabad
Owaisi has fielded his candidates in Aurangabad Central and Aurangabad East seats of Aurangabad (Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar) district. AIMIM’s Nasir Siddiqui is contesting from the Aurangabad Central seat and Imtiaz Jalil from the Aurangabad East seat. The SP and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi have fielded Muslim candidates against Imtiaz Jalil, while BJP’s Moreshwar Save and Congress’s Lahu Hanumantro are contesting the elections. Similarly, in the middle seat, Nasir Siddiqui has to fight against Javed Qureshi of VBA, Balasaheb Thorat of Shiv Sena (UBT) and Shinde has to fight against Pradeep Jaiswal of Shiv Sena.
Asaduddin Owaisi has predicted the victory of Imtiaz Jalil and Nasir Siddiqui, who are contesting on AIMIM ticket from Aurangabad. Owaisi said that the victory of both candidates is certain because people have faith in them that if AIMIM MLAs go to the assembly after winning the elections, they will pay attention to the problems of the region. Drinking water problem, bad roads and livelihood crisis are the major problems in Aurangabad. If both MLAs of our party go to the House after winning, they will not only discuss their problems but also try to resolve them.
Why is Owaisi claiming victory?
Asaduddin Owaisi did not intend to win both Aurangabad seats, but he did so as part of a well-thought-out strategy. Muslim voters play a decisive role in both seats. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Imtiaz Jalil, who contested on AIMIM ticket from the Aurangabad seat, gained a lead in only two of the six assembly seats belonging to the region. AIMIM got more votes than Mahayuti and Maha Vikas Aghadi in Aurangabad Central and Aurangabad East assembly seats.
At the same time, Shinde’s Shiv Sena had the lead in all four assembly seats that fell under the Aurangabad Lok Sabha seat. Chandrakant Khaire, who contested the elections from Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT), did not gain advantage in even a single seat. Mahayuti candidate Sandeep Panrao Bhumre got 4,76,130 votes, while Imtiaz Jalil got 3,41,480 votes. Chandrakant Khaire of the Shiv Sena (UBT) from Uddhav got 2,93,450 votes.
Shinde’s party may have managed to win the Aurangabad seat in the Lok Sabha elections by 1,34,650 votes, but Owaisi’s candidate had given a big signal by getting more votes than the Maha Vikas Aghadi candidate. Due to this, Owaisi claims to win both seats from Aurangabad district. There are many arguments being made for this.
Challenge to Owaisi due to SP-VBA
Asaduddin Owaisi has fielded Muslim candidates for the central and eastern seats of Aurangabad, but the way the Samajwadi Party and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi have fielded Muslim candidates has definitely created a problem. In Aurangabad East seat, SP has created problems for Imtiaz Jalil by fielding Abdul Ghaffar Qadri, who contested on AIMIM ticket in 2014 and 2019.
In 2014, Imtiaz Jalil was elected MLA by winning from the central seat of Aurangabad and became an MP in 2019. This time Imtiaz Jalil has contested from the central seat instead of the eastern seat, so Ghaffar Qadri has now joined the SP and has entered the electoral battle. The way the SP and Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi have created a political labyrinth in the Eastern and Central seats, it will not be easy for Owaisi to break it.