Mumbai:
The sweep of the ruling alliance in Maharashtra has been broadly attributed to the welfare programmes of the Eknath Shinde authorities. However a key issue has been the break up in Muslim vote which has delivered a bit of the state’s 38 seats to the ruling alliance. The Muslim inhabitants is greater than 20 per cent in these 38 seats, making a key distinction within the final result of the election. Over all, the ruling alliance has gained 22 of those 38 seats, method forward of the 13 gained by the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi.
The break up in votes has hit the Congress arduous – the social gathering’s rating has dropped from 11 to 5. The Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena Uddhav has bought six seats and Sharad Pawar’s NCP faction bought two.
Of the 38 seats, the BJP has elevated its tally from 11 in 2019 to 14. The Shiv Sena of Eknath Shinde has gained six seats and Ajit Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Get together two seats.
Of the remaining three seats, Samajwadi Get together bought two and Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM bought only one.
The result signifies that the clerics didn’t dominate the collective resolution of the Muslim neighborhood – a scenario that helped the BJP strengthen its allegations of “vote jihad” or consolidation of Muslim votes towards the Mahayuti.
Denying Opposition allegations of polarisation, senior BJP chief Vinay Sahasrabuddhe mentioned all communities are included within the slogan “Ek hain toh protected hain”. “Folks didn’t fall prey to the politics of appeasement and polarisation of the MVA, and got here collectively to vote for improvement. All communities are included in our ‘Ek hain toh protected hain’ mantra,” he mentioned.
“There was no place for appeasement, individuals right here take a look at improvement and advantages,” mentioned Salim Sarang, the president of the Muslim Welfare Affiliation.
Among the many large Muslim names who misplaced had been NCP’s Nawab Malik and Zeeshan Siddiqui in addition to Congress’s Arif Naseem Khan.
Knowledge signifies that whereas the help of the Muslim neighborhood helped the MVA win an enormous victory within the Lok Sabha election held in Might, what went towards them within the Meeting polls had been low enthusiasm, divided votes and communal polarization in some seats. In some seats, the presence of a number of Muslim candidates break up votes.
For example, in Aurangabad East, AIMIM state chief and former MP Imtiaz Jaleel misplaced to the BJP’s Atul Save by 2,161 votes. VBA’s Afsar Khan (6,507 votes) and SP’s Abdul Gaffar Syed (5,943 votes) break up the Muslim vote within the seat, making certain Jaleel’s defeat.
The one seat AIMIM gained was in Muslim-dominated Malegaon Central, the place its candidate Mufti Ismail, the sitting MLA, gained by simply 162 votes-the lowest margin within the state.
In the meantime, in Bhiwandi West, Mahesh Chaugule of the BJP defeated Riyaz Azmi of the SP by 31,293 votes as Muslims additionally divided their votes between AIMIM’s Waris Pathan (15,800 votes) and Unbiased Vilas Patil (31,579 votes).