Owaisi's AIMIM wins 114 seats in Maharashtra civic polls, including 33 in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Jan 16 (PTI) Asaduddin Owaisi's door-to-door campaign as well as the hurt of narrow losses in previous polls galvanised the workers of All India Majlis E Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) in the Maharashtra civic elections, resulting in the party winning 114 seats across the state, its leader Shareque Naqshbandi said here on Friday.

The AIMIM won 33 seats in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, 21 in Malegaon, 15 in Amravati, 13 in Nanded,10 in Dhule, eight in Solapur, six in Mumbai, five in Thane, two in Jalgaon and one in Chandrapur.

Winning 80 seats in earlier civic polls gave the party an idea of the temperament of the urban voter, which too helped, Naqshbandi told PTI.

"Initially, AIMIM faced a challenge from its own people over candidature in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. Later, the presence of Asaduddin Owaisi and his rallies in potent pockets resulted in AIMIM winning 33 out of 37 seats we contested here. We have bagged wins from Mumbai to Chandrapur this time," he said.

Owaisi gave more time to the campaign when compared to 2015 and succeeded in overcoming dissidence by speaking to disgruntled leaders and convincing nearly 70 percent of them, Naqshbandi said.

"The rest had already moved ahead by joining other political parties. We brought these people together and this got converted into votes. There were divisions among the opposition parties, which proved to be an opportunity to us. Moreover Asaduddin Owaisi went door to door in the areas where we were contesting. He pointed out local civic issues in smaller rallies which appealed to the voter," he added.

Moreover, narrow losses, like the one faced by Imtiaz Jaleel in the 2024 assembly elections from Aurangabad East, had hurt workers who put in extra efforts, Naqshbandi said. PTI AW BNM