All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM), which contested in the elections to three key municipal corporations of North Karnataka – Hubballi-Dharwad, Belagavi, and Kalaburagi – for the first time, has made its presence felt by winning three seats in Hubballi and one in Belagavi.
The performance of MIM is a definite cause for concern for the Congress, particularly in Hubballi-Dharwad. One visit by AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi seems to have swung voters in Hubballi-Dharwad East Assembly Constituency, which has sizeable number of Muslim voters, and is the lone seat held by Congress in Dharwad district. AIMIM’s all three victories came from wards in this constituency. In this constituency, represented by Congress MLA Prasad Abbayya, AIMIM has secured over 18,000 votes.
The District unit president of AIMIM Nazeer Ahmed Honyal, a former Congressman, won comfortably in ward 71 of Hubballi pushing the Congress candidate Mohammed Ahmed Halwoor (son of Congress urban district unit President) to the third position, while a rebel Congress candidate and former councillor Ganesh Tagargunti finished second. The winning margin was 1077.
In ward 76 where AIMIM candidate Waheeda Khanum Kittur won against Congress candidate Sahirabanu Kittur (wife of ex-councillor Altaf Kittur), the winning margin was, 2,142. In ward 77 AIMIM’s Hussainbi Nalvatwad defeated Congress nominee Batul Killedar with a margin of 418.
AIMIM which had contested in 12 wards ended up either second or third place in seven wards with its candidates securing an average of over 1000 votes and in two wards, AIMIM’s contest has helped Independents win.
Congress leaders and workers believe that AIMIM has adversely impacted their party’s prospects. On Monday night, one of the AIMIM candidate’s family was attacked allegedly by a defeated Congress candidate’s husband.
However, unlike Hubballi-Dharwad, AIMIM seems have made little impact on the prospects of Congress candidates in Belagavi and Kalaburagi.
Although AIMIM won one seat in Belagavi, the rest of the candidates have hardly made any impact.
In the 12 wards that AIMIM contested, the winners were either Congress or Independents and AIMIM candidates got between 300 and 500 votes in each ward. In ward number 18, Shahid Khan Pathan, a former Congressman, won on AIMIM ticket by securing 949 votes against the Congress nominee Abdul Khadar Gheewale who got 897.
Not much impact
In Kalaburagi too, AIMIM did not make much impact. Having contested from 20 seats, the party secured just 9,341 votes, a vote share of 3.5%. What was unusual was that in seven seats, the AIMIM candidates did not get a single vote, meaning that the candidates withdrew from contest despite being in the fray. But AIMIM did contest from some Muslim dominated wards, where the BJP had no candidates and finished a distant second, a development that drew the attention of Congress leaders.
(With Inputs from Rishikesh Bahadur Desai & Praveen B. Para)
