Pune: There were a few contests with wafer-thin victory margins amid Mahayuti's sweep of the Maharashtra assembly polls . The slimmest victory margin in all 288 seats contested in the state was recorded by Mufti Mohammed Ismail Abdul Khalique of AIMIM. He won by 162 votes, defeating Asif Shaikh of Indian Secular Largest Assembly of Maharashtra.
The contest in Malegaon was a four-way fight with Shani Hind from Samajwadi Party and Ejaz Baig from Congress also in fray, splitting the votes among all parties. As a result, the winner had a slender edge of just 162 votes in the contest. Khalique garnered 109,552 votes.
Both Khalique and Rasheed have strong bases in Malegaon Central, which consists mainly of the Muslim community. Khalique is the Imam of the Jama Masjid in the textile town. He was the MLA of the constituency in 2009 from the Jan Surajya Shakti Party.
However, in the next two consecutive assembly polls, Rasheed, who contested on a Congress ticket, defeated Khalique. In the 2019 polls, Khalique contested on the AIMIM ticket and defeated Rasheed. Another neck-to-neck fight was witnessed in Sakoli constituency of Bhandara district, where Congress state president Nana Patole was trailing by over 500 votes.
However, a recounting of last few rounds of a total 28, led to Patole's close victory by 208 votes to seal victory against BJP's Avinash Bramhankar. Maharashtra Jharkhand Maharashtra Alliance View i Party View Seats: 288 Results Majority: 145 BJP+ 229 MVA 47 OTH 12 Results : 288 / 288 BJP+ WON Jharkhand Alliance View i Party View Seats: 81 Results Majority: 41 INDIA 56 NDA 24 OTH 1 Results : 81 / 81 INDIA WON Source: PValue Among other wafer-thin battles fought in Maharashtra, three other candidates had a victory margin of less than 1,000 votes. Among the big contestants, Dilip Walse Patil won by a slender margin of 1,523 votes, whereas Rohit Pawar of NCP (SP) won by just 1,243 votes from Karjat Jamkhed against BJP's Ram Shinde.
Mhatre was given a ticket by BJP to contest from Belapur. Sandeep Naik was displeased with BJP's decision to give Manda Mhatre another chance. After leaving BJP, her opponent, Sandeep Naik of NCP (SP), took up the challenge and entered the election fray.
Mhatre said, "The contest has been close, but in the end, the margins don't matter. The victory is in my name, and the credit goes to every party worker who strived hard all these days." In Buldhana, there was a fierce contest between Shiv Sena's Sanjay Gaikwad and Shiv Sena (UBT)'s Jayashree Shelke.
With each round, the vote count kept both candidates and their supporters on edge. Gaikwad won by 841 votes in a very competitive battle. As soon as the victory was confirmed, his supporters broke into celebrations.
Gaikwad took the lead in the first five rounds. Then, in the sixth round, Shelke gained the lead, maintaining it in the seventh round as well. Gaikwad regained the lead in the eighth round.
In the following rounds, the lead alternated between two contestants. However, Gaikwad consistently led in the final rounds, winning by 841 votes. He secured 91,660 votes, while Shelke received 90,819 votes.
In contrast, there were a total of 13 contests where the winners had a margin of more than one lakh votes. Among the most commanding victories, Kashiram Pawara (BJP) secured an impressive margin of 145,944 votes in Shirpur, defeating independent candidate Dr Jitendra Thakur, closely followed by Shivendraraje Bhonsle (BJP) in Satara with a margin of 142,124 votes over Shiv Sena (UBT)'s Amit Kadam. Among the other candidates who won by huge margins was Dilip Borse of BJP from Baglan constituency, leading by1.
29 lakh votes, while Shiv Sena's Dada Bhuse in Malegaon Outer recorded a winning margin of over one lakh votes. NCP's Ajit Pawar in Baramati won by over one lakh votes in Baramati constituency. (Additional inputs by Ranjan Dasgupta in Nashik).
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