In biggest victory yet, Owaisi secures Hyderabad for fourth time

When counting started in the morning, AIMIM supporters were in for a scare when they saw that their chief was trailing behind Rao after the release of the results of the first phase.
In biggest victory yet, Owaisi secures Hyderabad for fourth time

HYDERABAD: With a majority of over 2.82 lakh votes from his nearest candidate, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi scripted his biggest win in the four times he contested (and won) from the Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat on Thursday. 

The Hyderabad MP amassed a mammoth 5,17,471 votes, whereas BJP candidate Bhagavanth Rao was the distant second with 2,35,056. AIMIM’s friendly party TRS, who had also fielded a candidate, helped in deepening the divide further with Pusthe Srikanth securing 63,239 votes. Congress’ Mohammed Feroze Khan secured around 50,000 votes.

Although Owaisi’s win was expected with six of the seven Assembly segments under the Hyderabad LS Constituency resting with AIMIM, the margin has been unprecedented. With 2,82,186 votes over Bhagavanth, Owaisi topped his performance in the 2014 elections when the margin was 2,02,454 against the same candidate from BJP. 

Although, reports from the ground suggested that Bhagavanth Rao, who had contested in the previous elections would fare better than the 2014 elections, a look at the polling percentage suggests otherwise. While Bhagavanth Rao’s polling percentage decreased from 32.22 per cent to 26 per cent, Owaisi’s increased from 53.17 per cent in 2014 to 58.95 per cent in the recent elections. 

When counting started in the morning, AIMIM supporters were in for a scare when they saw that their chief was trailing behind Rao after the release of the results of the first phase. However, Owaisi’s tally picked pace at around 10 am, and he has since then extended to leave the other contestants behind. 

Addressing the media after his win, Owaisi thanked the citizens for voting for him and said that he would continue “fighting” BJP in the Parliament and “exposing” them on issues such as employment and farm distress. 

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