Abdul Bari Masoud | Caravan Daily
NEW DELHI — Maharashtra and Haryana assembly elections as well as the by-poll results have dented the image of the Modi-Shah duo, who can no longer be considered “invincible” as they are projected by the mainstream media. Results also reinforced that emotive issues like Kashmir and the NRC failed to cut much ice with the voters.
In Maharashtra, the BJP-Shiv Sena combined retained the power but with considerably reduced margin. Both parties gave tickets to Congress and NCP turncoats but failed to secure more seats than the 2014 elections. The BJP lost as many as 21 seats as compared to its strength in the last assembly elections while the same has happened with its alliance partner, Shiv Sena, which got 54 seats. Both alliance partners secured 157 seats, out of 288 seats. They lost more than 25 seats. The BJP alone has bagged 102 seats against 123; it had won five years ago.
The Congress-led opposition alliance won 102 seats, with junior partner the local Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), faring better securing 53 seats. The Congress has won just 43 seats.
Sharad Pawar, the NCP chief, told reporters that the opposition worked hard to project real issues. “Power comes, power goes, but it is important to remain committed to the cause,” he said.
While in northern agrarian state Haryana assembly elections threw hung house. The ruling BJP lost 22 per cent vote and the government and many of its ministers faced the wrath of the public. The BJP secured 39 seats in the 90–member assembly losing 7 seats to the opposition while Congress improved its tally from 15 to 32 in the present assembly while Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) got 10 seats.
Despite a directionless campaign and disunity in the opposition rank, results in both the states show that unilateral revocation of Articles 370 and 35A failed to cut much ice with the voters. It also shows that Modi-Shah’s popularity is set on the decline as they rode to power in general election with much bigger number just five months ago in the wake of Pulwama and Balakot strike.
| Muslims who won in 2019 Maharashtra Assembly elections |
| Mufti Ismail |
| Abu Asim Aazmi |
| Farooque Shah |
| Musharraf Hussain |
| Amin Patel |
| Raees Qasim Shaikh |
| Abdul Sattar |
| Abdul Sattar Nabi |
| Aslam Shaikh |
| Zeeshan Baba Siddiqui |
Results also reflect the caste faultlines resurfaced particularly in Haryana where the BJP had attempted to combine different Hindu castes, against the dominant Jat caste, who form 30 per cent of the population in the region.
Upbeat Congress
Buoyed by the results, Congress said it is a moral defeat of the BJP and what they stand for and what they can paint for that have been rejected by the people.
The definitions of victory and defeat are fast changing in BJP’s lexicon, said senior Congress senior leader Anand Sharma while addressing a press conference here. He underlined that the BJP lost 22 per cent vote in Haryana, they have lost the government, they have lost the majority and they claim it to be a big victory that is the dichotomy.
“It is ironical, a party, which remains in denial, within 4 months, this has been a sharp drop. Two days ago their claims were of 240 seats in Maharashtra, where are they?,” He asked.
On the government formation in Haryana, he said it is the reality; they(BJP) may go down further and the right to form a government or to make a claim, is a different thing.
According to the figures issued by the Election Commission, the ruling BJP has polled 36.4% popular votes in Maharashtra and 25.6% popular votes in Haryana.
In the by-polls for 51 state assembly seats, the ruling BJP has been able to win 17 seats, with seven of them in Uttar Pradesh.
Resurgent Congress in Gujarat
The Congress made a comeback in Assembly seats in Gujarat and Punjab. The BJP holds strong in Uttar Pradesh Assembly bypolls. Results for 51 Assembly constituencies and two Lok Sabha constituencies, across 18 states are out today.
As far as Muslim representation is concerned, they did not fare as much as many had expected thanks to a lack of planning and the division of votes. Despite being the fourth largest Muslim population after UP, West Bengal and Bihar, Muslim had for far too long remained under-represented in Maharashtra. It appears to be changing with 10 Muslims winning in the BJP-Shiv Sena ruled state.
Among the winners are three from Congress, and two each from NCP, AIMIM, and SP while one elected on Shiv Sena tickets. Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen lost both the seats Byculla (Mumbai) and Aurangabad (West) while it wrested two new seats in the form of Dhule city and Malegaon.
Shah Faruk Anwar from the Dhule city seat and Mufti Ismail from Malegaon are two new faces of the MIM in the new assembly while Waris Pathan from Byculla lost the election and Imtiyaz Jalil who represented Aurangabad East seat was elected to Lok Sabha.
AIMIM Loses in Aurangabad
It is surprising that the AIMIM that won the Aurangabad Lok Sabha seat in the General Elections in May failed to get any assembly seats in this constituency. Commenting on the poor performance of the Majlis candidates, Shakib Khusro, Managing Editor of Aurangabad Times said this time the Dalit support was missing and multiple Muslim candidates also spoiled the chances of the Majlis. He told Caravan Daily that AIMIM candidate Dr Ghaffar Quadri secured more than 78, 000 votes while the BJP candidate Atul Save got 87,000 votes. Quadri’s chances were spoiled by other Muslim candidates who all secured more than 16,000 votes.
Because of the failure to strike an alliance with the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi of Prakash Ambedkar, the AIMIM could not get the Dalit votes this time around, said Khusro.
Abu Asim Azmi Wins
Abu Asim Azmi, sitting MLA and Maharashtra Samajwadi Party (SP) President, won from the Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar Assembly seat.
Abu Asim Azmi got 63,697 votes defeating his nearest rival from Shiv Sena in the seat he has held since 2009.
In Haryana as well, the Muslims retained their strength in the assembly. Three Muslims were elected from the Muslim-dominated Mewat region.
Voters in Mewat rejected two sitting MLAs Nasim Ahamed and Zakir Khan who switched over their loyalties to the BJP in the hope of getting ministry. They fought on the BJP ticket despite lynching incidents.
3 Muslims Win from Haryana
Mohammad Sabir, a local journalist told Caravan Daily that the Muslim voters had rejected both the influential MLAs. He said there was anguish in the region due to continued harassment of the minority community and incidents of mob lynching and encounter killings.
In the 2014 Assembly elections, three Muslim candidates had won, two of them were from Indian National Lok Dal.
On Nuh seat, Congress candidate Aftab Ahmed defeated Zakir Hussain(BJP ) by a margin of more than 37,000 votes which is the highest margin in Haryana.
In Firozepur Jhirka, Eng Mamman Khan of Congress won defeating the BJP’s Naseem Ahmed and in Punahana, Mohammad Ilyas of the Congress trounced Rais Khan, an independent candidate.
In by-polls, the AIMIM opened its electoral account in North India with the party defeating its archrival BJP on the Kishanganj assembly seat in Bihar with the margin of over 10,000 votes. AIUDF candidate Hafiz Dr Rafiqul Islam Qasmi won Jania by-election in Assam by defeating his nearest rival with a margin of 35354 votes.
