Owaisi's AIMIM draws a blank in UP polls, wins just 0.43 per cent votes

The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), which has been trying to expand its party beyond Hyderabad, drew a blank in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, with most of its candidates not even bridging the 5,000-mark. The Asaddudin Owaisi-led party, which contested nearly thrice the number of seats in Uttar Pradesh than it did in 2017, has again failed to open its account in the state.

According to poll trends on Thursday (March 10), the party managed to muster up around 0.43 per cent of the total votes polled across the 403 assembly seats in the state.

The Election Commission website at 4pm showed that AIMIM candidates Qamar Kamal in Azamgarh got 1,368 votes, Umair Madni in Deoband 3,145 votes, Abhayraj in Jaunpur 1,340 votes, Moinuddin in Kanpur Cantt 754 votes, Salman in Lucknow Central 463 votes, Rashid in Moradabad 1,266 votes, Mohid Fargani 1,771 votes from Moradabad Rural, and Imran Ahmed in Meerut got 2,405 votes.

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Among other party candidates, Abdur Rahman Ansari got 2,116 votes in Nizamabad, Mohd Intezar 2,642 votes in Muzaffarnagar, Mohd Rafique 1,363 votes in Sandila, Irfan 4,886 votes in Tanda, Yor Mohammed 571 votes in Sirathu, while Rashid Jameel got 1,747 votes from Bahraich, it showed.

The AIMIM claimed to have fielded candidates in 100 seats for the UP assembly elections, with a focus on the constituencies where the Muslim community is in majority. For the UP polls, the party was in an alliance with Babu Singh Kushwaha’s Jan Adhikar Party, and the Bharat Mukti Morcha. The AIMIM has roughly won 3.4 lakh votes in the UP assembly elections, according to EC data.

In the 2017 assembly elections, Owaisi’s party had contested 38 seats and its candidates had to forfeit their deposits in 37 seats.