2 min readMumbaiOct 20, 2014 12:47 PM IST
First published on: Oct 20, 2014 at 10:23 AM IST
Majli-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, which fought Maharashtra Assembly polls for the first time, caused a major upset in central Mumbai after defeating the Congress in Byculla in a close contest. After 18 rounds of counting on Sunday, the MIM’s Waris Yusuf Pathan edged out sitting MLA Madhu Chavan by a mere 1,357 votes.
The lawyer-turned-politician was among his party’s two winning candidates among the 36 it had fielded state-wide.
“The margin of the victory was very slim, but what it is important is that we have opened our account in Mumbai. We wanted to have a foothold in Mumbai and wish we could have had more seats in the city,” said party spokesperson Danish Reyaz.
Pathan was not among the top in the first ten rounds of counting, where the BJP’s Madhukar Chavan, the MNS’ Sanjay Naik and Geeta Gawli of the Akhil Bhartiya Sena alternated top spots.
In the 11th round, Pathan soared to the top with 15748 votes, after which he and the Congress’ Chavan slugged it out for the top spot.
“Muslim voters were angry at Chavan because he hadn’t fulfilled promises he had made in 2009. In the past five years, he had only once interacted with the community when he came to inaugurate a school. Apart from that, he never met people in his constituency. In 2009, Chavan had promised to set up a temporary slaughterhouse for Bakri Eid, but nothing ever came of it. During Bakri Eid this year, voters were again reminded of his unfulfilled promise,” Reyaz said.
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