AIMIM's Jaleel first non-Congress Muslim MP from Maharashtra

AIMIM’s Imtiaz Jaleel, who won the Lok Sabha election from Aurangabad segment by 4,492 votes against Shiv Sena MP Chandrakant Khaire, will be Maharashtra’s first non-Congress Muslim member of the Lower House.

There have been 11 Muslim members in the Lok Sabha from Maharashtra but they were all from the Congress. Of them, Asghar Hussain and former chief minister A R Antulay had won the Lok Sabha election twice, a poll official said.

“I had focused my campaign on development but the Sena has always campaigned around religious sentiments,” Jaleel, the journalist-turned-politician, said. In 2014, he quit his job as a reporter in a national news channel and days later, contested and won the Assembly election from Aurangabad Central Assembly segment.

Mohd Mohibbul Haq had won from the Akola Lok Sabha seat in 1962 on a Congress ticket. Two Muslims were elected from the Akola seat to the Lok Sabha in 1967 and 1971. This time, the NCP fielded Hidayat Patel from Akola seat against BJP MP Sanjay Dhotre but he lost.

No major party fielded a Muslim candidate this time. Former Union minister Ghulam Nabi Azad won the Lok Sabha seat from Washim constituency in 1984 as a Congress candidate. Antulay was the last Muslim candidate elected to the Lok Sabha from Maharashtra as a Congress nominee. He won the 1999 election but lost to Shiv Sena candidate Anant Geete in 2004.

There are around 1.30 crore Muslims in Maharashtra, slightly above 11 per cent of the state’s total 11.24 crore population, an official said.