Maharashtra elections 2019: VBA, AIMIM dent Congress-NCP combine's victory in 20 seats

Votes polled by former allies similar to winning margin of Shiv Sena, BJP candidates

Going separate ways: Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi chief Prakash Ambedkar (left) with All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen president Asaduddin Owaisi. The parties went solo in the polls.

Though the Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) fielded candidates in over 250 seats in the Assembly polls, not a single one of them emerged victorious when the results were declared on Thursday.

Meanwhile, VBA’s former alliance partner, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), contested 44 seats and was able to win only two seats. By going solo in the polls, the parties split the votes and stood in the way of the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) crossing the victory line in over 20 seats across the State. In several seats such as Nandgaon, Chandivali, Ulhasnagar, Pune Cantonment, Shivajinagar and Paithan, where the Congress and the NCP lost by slender margins, the votes polled by the VBA were often close to the margin of victory of the Shiv Sena or BJP candidate.

The VBA stood second in 10 seats and claimed the third spot in 23 seats in the State. In Nandgaon, the VBA polled 13,637 seats, where sitting MLA Pankaj Bhujbal of the NCP lost to the Sena’s Suhas Kande by a margin of 13,889 votes. The party split votes in Jintur, Paithan, Ulhasnagar, Daund, Chalisgaon and Khadakwasla, where the NCP candidates lost by narrow margins.

Blow to fortunes

The AIMIM’s entry into the electoral fary hit the NCP the hardest in Balapur. The AIMIM was contesting the seat for the first time and received the lion’s share of the Muslim vote, polling nearly 44,507 votes. The NCP was relegated to the fourth position with 16,497 votes in the constituency, which was won by the Sena’s Nitinkumar Tale. The VBA stood second with 50,555 votes.

The VBA and the AIMIM also adversely affected the fortunes of the Congress. The impact was felt the most in Chandivali, where Naseem Khan of the Congress lost by a slender margin of 409 votes. The VBA and the AIMIM had both fielded Muslim candidates and they polled 8,876 votes and 1,167 votes respectively.

The AIMIM entered into a direct contest with the Congress in Malegaon Central and won the seat for the first time. In Nanded North, AIMIM’s Feroz Lala polled 41,892 votes, resulting in sitting MLA D.P. Savant of the Congress losing to Sena’s Balaji Kalyankar by a margin of 12,000 votes. The VBA stood fourth in the constituency with 26,569 votes.