It also impacted the Shiv Sena and BJP’s vote share in a few seats too," said a senior AIMIM functionary who did not want to be identified. The results were similar in close to handful of other seats, where VBA candidates may have spoilt the chances of candidates belonging to the Congress-NCP alliance. In the 2014 Maharashtra assembly polls, the AIMIM, led by Hyderabad member of parliament Asaduddin Owaisi, contested 25 seats and won two, securing about 5 lakh votes in total. “The VBA has impacted the vote share among Dalits, STs and Muslims, which constitute about 35% of Maharashtra’s population," he added. One of its MLAs who won in 2014 was journalist-turned-politician Imtiyaz Jaleel, who won the Aurangabad Lok Sabha seat this year.

Source: Mint June 11, 2019 12:33 UTC