Maharashtra assembly elections: AIMIM secures 2 seats in state, but loses hold on Byculla, Aurangabad

MUMBAI: All India Majlis Ittehadul Muslemeen (AIMIM), led by Asaduddin Owaisi, bagged two seats on Thursday — Dhule City and Malegaon Central. It had contested on 44 seats.
The party lost on the two seats that had its sitting MLAs — Byculla and Aurangabad Central. In Byculla, sitting MLA Waris Pathan was defeated by Sena candidate Yamini Jadhav and in Aurangabad Central, Pradeep Jaiswal of Shiv Sena won.Imtiaz Jaleel, who was the sitting MLA there, was elected into the Lok Sabha this year and had thus left the seat vacant.

Shah Fakur Anwar, who won from Dhule City, defeated an independent by a margin of 3,307 votes. Mufti Mohammed Ismail defeated Malegaon Central’s sitting Congress MLA Shaikh Asif, by a margin of 38,519 votes.
Imtiyaz Kamal, general secretary, Youth Congress said, “The biggest factor that worked in favour of Ismail is the Owaisi wave.” Hilal Anwar, joint secretary, Youth Congress said, “Emotions have won, delvelopment issues have lost in this election.”