Hyderabad: The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), which initially seemed like it would retain the Aurangabad Lok Seat, has lost all of the seats it contested outside of Hyderabad. Outgoing Aurangabad MP Imtiyaz Jaleel lost to the Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde faction), while its Kishanganj candidate Akhtarul Iman in Bihar also fell behind the Janata Dal (United) and Congress.
According to the Election Commission of India (ECI), AIMIM’s Imtiyaz Jaleel came second with 341480 votes, falling behind Shiv Sena by over 1..34 lakh votes. The Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi’s Afsar Khan Yaseen also seems to have dented the AIMIM, getting about 69000 votes.
Though it seemed like AIMIM was going to benefit with the Shiv Sena being split into two factions – one led by Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde and another by Uddhav Thackeray – it did not however bear fruit.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, AIMIM had won the seat with support from the VBA, which this time decided to contest on its own.
In Bihar’s Kishanganj Lok Sabha seat, AIMIM’s Akhtarul Iman came third with about 3.09 lakh votes, with JDU’s standing first with over 4 lakh votes. Congress candidate Mohammed Jawed stood as runner up with. The Asaduddin Owaisi-led party was pinning its hopes on winning the Kishanganj seat after it managed to win five Assembly seats in Bihar’s 2020 Assembly election.
In Hyderabad, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi retained the Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat for a record fifth time, as the party has been winning the constituency since 1984. He won the seat with over 6.61 lakh votes, with a margin of victory over three lakh votes.
