Maharashtra: VBA, MNS & AIMIM gave tough fight in Polls

The Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, the Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena and Asaduddin Owaisi-led All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen managed to damage the prospects of other parties.

The VBA, AIMIM and MNS made a difference in more than 35 places of the total 288-seats of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.

While the VBA contested around 250 seats, the MNS 100 and AIMIM 50.

While MNS did not contest the Lok Sabha polls, the VBA-AIMIM had a tie-up and it won one seat when AIMIM's Imtiaz Jaleel won the Aurangabad seat and VBA damaged the prospects of Congress in over a dozen places and NCP in a few.

The VBA and AIMIM alliance broke off ahead of Vidhan Sabha polls.

While the VBA failed to win a single seat, MNS candidate Raju Patil won the Kalyan Rural seat (Thane district).

The AIMIM won two seats - Shah Fakurn Anwar in Dhule City (Dhule district) and Mufti Mohammed Ismail in Malegaon Central (Nashik district).

"The VBA put up a good fight in the Vidhan Sabha elections. We got more than 24 lakh votes. Even if we didn’t win, we worked hard, were 2nd in 10 seats and were 3rd in many more. We have stood strong in the face of this struggle," said Ambedkar.

Maharashtra Congress general secretary Sachin Sawant said that because of VBA, the Congress-NCP candidates lost on 25 places. "In Lok Sabha, they got 41 lakh votes and in Vidhan Sabha, 24 lakh votes," he said.

If one takes a look at Raj's party it maintained the tally of 2014. It affected the Congress in 4 places, Shiv Sena in three and BJP in two. The MNS contested alone but had a tactical understanding with the Congress and NCP in a few places.

In some places, the VBA and AIMIM have collectively affected like Chandivali in Mumbai, where deputy leader of Congress in outgoing Assembly Naseem Khan lost by a margin of 409 votes.