Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) contested on over 250 seats in the Assembly polls of Maharashtra, while the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) fielded its candidates on 44 seats. All of the VBA candidates faced defeat, while MIM was able to win only two seats.
MIM and VBA who had entered into an alliance in previous elections decided to go solo in these polls. According to political analysts, the parties split the votes in over 20 seats across the State. They stood in the way of the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) crossing the victory line.
Congress and the NCP lost by slender margins in several seats such as Nandgaon, Chandivali, Ulhasnagar, Pune Cantonment, Shivajinagar and Paithan. Most of the VBA candidates secured votes close to the margin of victory of the Shiv Sena or BJP candidate.
While VBA stood second in 10 seats it claimed the third spot in 23 seats in the State. In Nandgaon, the sitting MLA Pankaj Bhujbal of the NCP lost to the Sena’s Suhas Kande by a margin of 13,889 votes the while VBA polled 13,637 seats. The NCP candidates also lost by narrow margins in Jintur, Paithan, Ulhasnagar, Daund, Chalisgaon and Khadakwasla, where VBA split votes.
Meanwhile, AIMIM’s entry into the electoral fray affected NCP’s victory in Balapur. While the AIMIM polled nearly 44,507 votes, VBA stood second with 50,555 votes and the NCP stood fourth with 16,497 votes. Together they got 111559 votes. The seat was won by the Sena’s Nitinkumar Tale with 69,343.
In Chandivali, where Naseem Khan of the Congress lost by a slender margin of 409 votes, VBA polled 8876 votes and AIMIM polled 1,167 votes.