Maharashtra: VBA, AIMIM cut votes to deny Cong, NCP victory in at least 20 seats

The Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) contested from over 250 seats in the recently held Maharashtra Assembly polls but failed to win a single seat. VBA’s former ally, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), too fought from 44 seats and was able to win only two seats.

But, by contesting separately, the two parties were able to split the votes and prevented the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) from emerging victorious in over 20 seats across the state, a report in The Hindu said.

Another report by The Indian Express said that VBA and AIMIM compromised the Congress and the NCP’s chances in as many as 22 seats. Economic Times has put the number at 32.

The Hindu report said, “In several seats such as Nandgaon, Chandivali, Ulhasnagar, Pune Cantonment, Shivajinagar and Paithan, where the Congress and the NCP lost by slender margins, the votes polled by the VBA were often close to the margin of victory of the Shiv Sena or BJP candidate.

The VBA stood second in 10 seats and claimed the third spot in 23 seats in the State. In Nandgaon, the VBA polled 13,637 seats, where sitting MLA Pankaj Bhujbal of the NCP lost to the Sena’s Suhas Kande by a margin of 13,889 votes.

The party split votes in Jintur, Paithan, Ulhasnagar, Daund, Chalisgaon and Khadakwasla, where the NCP candidates lost by narrow margins…The VBA and the AIMIM also adversely affected the fortunes of the Congress.

The impact was felt the most in Chandivali, where Naseem Khan of the Congress lost by a slender margin of 409 votes. The VBA and the AIMIM had both fielded Muslim candidates and they polled 8,876 votes and 1,167 votes respectively.”

The Congress-NCP coalition ended up with 104 seats but if they had won at least 20 seats out of the 32 where VBA ate into their votes, then the combine’s tally would have been 124 seats, just 21 short of the majority mark.

The BJP-Shiv Sena combine has won 161 seats. Its tally would have come down to 141, four short of the majority mark. VBA had also cost the Congress-NCP alliance in the state at least eight Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 general elections.