While Maharashtra overall saw the highest voter turnout in 25 years in Wednesday’s Assembly elections, in 19 of the 22 seats in the state where Muslims make up more than 25% of the electorate, the polling was lower than the state average.

Incidentally, this follows the BJP’s claims of “vote jihad” during the poll campaign, implying a drive for Muslim voter consolidation to influence electoral outcomes.

Overall, Maharashtra saw polling of 66.05% — a rise of 4.95 percentage points compared to 2019 and the highest since 1995.

Of the 19 constituencies where Muslims are in large numbers and where the turnout was below the state average, 16 saw a slight turnout increase in terms of percentage points from last time, but still lagged behind the state average.

Aurangabad Central and Anushakti Nagar even recorded a decline from last time, by 0.35 and 1.23 percentage points respectively. Aurangabad Central, where Muslims make up 38.5% of the population, saw 59.35% polling. Here, sitting Shiv Sena MLA Pradeep Jaiswal is taking on the AIMIM and Sena (UBT). In Anushakti Nagar, where the Muslim population is 28.8% and which saw a voter turnout of 54.04%, the NCP’s Sana Malik (the daughter of Nawab Malik, the sitting MLA) is taking on the NCP (SP)’s Fahad Ahmad.

The lowest polling among seats with a high Muslim population was in Mumbadevi (48.76%), though it saw a surge of 4.75 percentage points from last time. Here, BJP leader Shaina N C is the Shiv Sena candidate, while from the INDIA bloc side, the Congress’s Amin Patel is contesting.

The seats with high Muslim population where polling was below state average include Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar, which saw 52.14% voting, Bhiwandi East 51.4%, Bhiwandi West 54.39%, Amravati 56.51%, Mumbra Kalwa 52.15%, Akola West 57.97%, Byculla 53.02%, Aurangabad Central 59.35%, Aurangabad West 60.58%, Versova 51.44%, Dharavi 50.03%, Vandre East 54.65%, Kurla 53.15%, Anushakti Nagar 54.04%, Malad West 54.89%, Chandivali 52.92%, Andheri West 53.67%, and Vandre West 51.36%.

Of the four seats where Muslims are a substantial population and which witnessed the highest increases in voter turnout, three have sitting NDA MLAs. These include Andheri West (+10.15 percentage points) where the sitting BJP MLA Ameet Satam is taking on the Congress’s Ashok Jadhav; Versova (+9.06 percentage points), where sitting BJP MLA Bharti Lavekar is taking on the Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Haroon Khan; Kurla reserved seat (+8.23), where sitting Shiv Sena MLA Mangesh Kudalkar is facing off against the Sena (UBT)’s Pravina Morajkar; and Akola West (+6.96 percentage points), where the BJP’s Vijay Agarwal is facing the Congress’s Sajid Khan .

The other seats where polling went up, but stayed below the state average, are Malegaon Central, Bhiwandi East, Mumbadevi, Bhiwandi West, Mumbra Kalwa, Byculla, Aurangabad West, Dharavi, Vandre East, Malad West, Chandivali, Akot, Vandre West and Parbhani.

In the final stretch of campaigning, the BJP’s claims of “vote jihad” got a further push when Maulana Khalil-ur-Rahman Sajjad Nomani, a prominent Islamic scholar, issued a list urging Muslim voters to support candidates of the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi alliance, for “a secular and inclusive government”.