After the All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) that contested the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections with much fanfare but ended up with a miniscule 0.4 per cent vote share and zero seats, party chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Thursday said that he respects the decision of public. The party candidates have not been able to cross the 5,000-mark in the assembly elections,
Owaisi, who created a flutter in state politics with his controversial speeches and claims, has failed to 'move even a fly' even though he had an opportunity to polarize minorities in his favour during the high-octane 'bulldozer' campaign being run by the BJP.
Commenting on the election results, he said, "UP public has decided to give power to BJP, I respect the decision of public."
"I thank AIMIM's state pres, workers, members, and the public who voted for us. Our efforts were quite a lot, but the results didn't come as per our expectations," he said adding that his party will work hard again.
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, the website showed at 4 pm.
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.
AIMIM had 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.
In 2017, the AIMIM, which had fielded candidates on 38 seats in Uttar Pradesh, had failed to open its account in the Hindi heartland though it received around 2 lakh votes. This time, it has got 22.3 lakh votes and increased its vote share marginally.
The AIMIM was confident of winning the Mubarakpur seat in Azamgarh where it had fielded former BSP leader Guddu Jamali.
However, Jamali lost the seat that has a large population of communities of weavers, migrant workers and people from different schools of Islam.
(With agency inputs)
