Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM might have hoped for a better strike rate after winning just one of the 16 seats it contested in Maharashtra. But the performance, in terms of the votes, suggests that it whittled down the votes of the Opposition MVA in some seats and even trimmed the victory margins in some others.

Another worrying trend for the Congress, which sees itself as the mainstream secular party, is that given an option, Muslims are willing to look beyond it and its allies in a particular constituency, where Owaisi’s AIMIM or another such party, can win because of the community’s sizable strength.

However, keeping in mind the MVA’s rout, the results would have been the same had the AIMIM been out of the fray. Of the 16 candidates the party fielded, 12 were Muslims and four Dalits in seats reserved for the Scheduled Castes. Last time, the AIMIM fielded 44 candidates and two of them won.

Malegaon Central, the only seat the AIMIM ended up winning, has 78% Muslim voters. Mufti Mohammad Ismail won by just 162 votes against Asif Shaikh Rasheed of the Indian Secular Largest Assembly of Maharashtra, with the SP’s Shaan e Hind Nihal Ahmed getting just 9,624 votes. The BJP did not field any candidate here. Four AIMIM candidates came second in their respective seats.

In Aurangabad Central, with over 38% of Muslim voters, where Shinde Sena’s Pradeep Jaiswal won by 8,119 votes, AIMIM candidate Siddiqui Naseruddin Taquiuddin came second bagging 77,340 votes. Shiv Sena (UBT) candidate Balasaheb Thorat came third, securing 37,098 votes.

In Dhule city, the AIMIM’s Shah Farook Anwar came second with 70,788 votes, with BJP’s Omprakash Agrawal winning by a margin of 45,750 votes, and Sena UBT candidate Anil Gote getting 24,304 votes. The seat has around 22% Muslim voters. The results indicated that the AIMIM candidate walked away with a large chunk of the votes that could have gone to the MVA nominee.

In Solapur City Central, which has close to 25% Muslim electorate, BJP’s Devendra Kothe won by 48,850 votes, the AIMIM’s Farooq Shabdi came second with 61,428 votes, and the Congress was reduced to 16,385 votes.

In Aurangabad East with more than 37% Muslim electorate, BJP’s Atul Save won by 2,161 votes. AIMIM’s Imtiaz Jaleel, its state president, got 91,113 votes and the Congress’s Lahu Hanumantrao Shewale came third with just 12,568 votes.

In Nanded South, Anand Tidke of Shinde Sena won by 2,132 votes, defeating the Congress’s Mohanrao Hambarde. The AIMIM’s Syed Momin Syed Mukhtar, however, chipped away 15,396 votes in a seat which has over 23% Muslim voters. Added to this, the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi’s Farooque Ahmed pulled out 33,841 votes.

In Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar, in which SP’s Maharashtra unit chief Abu Azmi won by 12,753 votes, AIMIM candidate Ateeque Ahmad Khan bagged 42,027, reducing Azmi’s winning margin. Shinde Sena’s Suresh Patil came third with 35,263 votes.

In Karanja, BJP’s Sai Prakash Dahake defeated NCP (Sharad Pawar) candidate Patni Gyayak Rajendra by a margin of 35,073 votes in the constituency which has close to 21% Muslim voters. AIMIM’s Mohammad Yusuf Mohammad Shafi Punjani came third and got 31,042 votes.

In the other seats, the AIMIM could not make a dent that could alter the results while its SC candidates failed to put up an impressive performance.