Abu Asim Azmi of the Samajwadi Party retained Mumbai's key constituency of Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar by a margin of 12,753 votes. He received a total of 54,780 votes, as per the data shared by the Election Commission of India.
Azmi's closest rival in this election was Ateeque Ahmad Khan of the All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen, who secured 42,027 votes.
The counting of votes in this constituency, along with other seats contested in the Maharashtra assembly elections, commenced at 8:00 a.m on Saturday.
The electoral battle in Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar was seen as a four-cornered contest between incumbent MLA Abu Asim Azmi, Nawab Malik of the Ajit Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party, Suresh Patil of the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, and Ateeque Ahmad Khan of the AIMIM.
The entry of Nawab Malik, a former minister, made Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar one of the key constituencies to watch out. However, Malik ended up as the third runner-up, having secured only 15,501 votes.
The poll battle in Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar had also drawn media glare as the Mahayuti—the Bharatiya Janata Party-led ruling coalition which includes Ajit Pawar's NCP—decided not to support Malik's candidature.
Azmi's candidature was backed by the Maha Vikas Aghadi, which is the Congress-led Opposition alliance.
The BJP-headed Mahayuti, however, fielded Suresh Patil also known as 'Bullet' Patil, as their official candidate. He was issued the ticket by Shinde's Shiv Sena.
Despite not being endorsed by the Mahayuti, Malik remained in the fray. His candidature was backed by NCP chief and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar. In the outgoing assembly, Malik represented the neighbouring Anushakti Nagar constituency. However, he vacated the seat for his daughter Sana Malik in this election.
Azmi, who heads the Maharashtra unit of the Samajwadi Party, had won the Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar seat in three consecutive polls—2009, 2014 and 2019.
Notably, all 288 seats of Maharashtra were contested in a single phase on Nov. 20. The battlelines were largely drawn between the ruling Mahayuti and the Opposition bloc of Maha Vikas Aghadi, which comprised the Congress, the Uddhav Thackeray-led faction of Shiv Sena and Sharad Pawar-led faction of NCP.
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