A post is widely circulating across social media platforms (here, here, here, and here), claiming that both the NDA and Congress lost in the Malegaon, Shivaji Nagar, and Bhiwandi East Assembly seats in the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections, where the Muslim population is reportedly more than 51%. Some posts specifically mention the seats as Malegaon Central, Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar, and Bhiwandi East. In this article, let us fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: In the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections, both the NDA and Congress lost in the Malegaon Central, Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar, and Bhiwandi East assembly constituencies, where the majority voters are Muslims.
Fact: In the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections, the BJP and its allies did not contest in Malegaon Central, where AIMIM won the seat. Congress contested only in Malegaon Central and did not contest in Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar or Bhiwandi East, as its ally and MVA member, the Samajwadi Party, was contesting. The Samajwadi Party won both of these seats. Hence, the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
It should be noted that the NDA allies contested as the Mahayuti alliance in the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections, while Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar faction), Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray faction), Samajwadi Party, Communist Party of India (Marxist), and others contested under the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA).
In the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Mahayuti alliance (NDA) returned to power with a decisive majority. The BJP won 132 seats, Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) secured 57 seats, and NCP (Ajit Pawar faction) won 41 seats. In the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar faction) won 10 seats, Congress secured 16 seats, and Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray faction) won 20 seats (here).
To verify the accuracy of the viral claim, we examined the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly election results published on the ECI website. According to the data, the Malegaon Central assembly seat was won by Mufti Mohammad Ismail Abdul Khalique of AIMIM with a majority of 162 votes. He secured 109,653 votes, while Asif Shaikh Rasheed of the Indian Secular Largest Assembly of Maharashtra stood second with 109,491 votes. The Congress candidate, Ejaz Baig Aziz Baig, secured 7,527 votes and finished in fourth place, while its ally, the Samajwadi Party candidate Shaan E Hind Nihal Ahmed, secured 9,624 votes and stood in third place.
Asif Shaikh Rasheed, a former Congress MLA from this constituency, later joined the NCP before establishing his own party, the Indian Secular Largest Assembly of Maharashtra. Additionally, the BJP and its allies did not contest this seat.
The Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar constituency was won by Abu Asim Azmi of the Samajwadi Party, who secured 54,780 votes. It is worth noting that Congress did not contest in this constituency, as its ally and MVA member, the Samajwadi Party, was contesting. Both Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) and NCP (Ajit Pawar faction), which are part of the NDA, contested this seat and finished in third and fourth place, respectively.
The Bhiwandi East constituency was won by Rais Kasam Shaikh of the Samajwadi Party, who secured 119,687 votes. It is worth noting that Congress did not contest in this constituency, as its ally and MVA member, the Samajwadi Party, was contesting. Shiv Sena (Shinde faction), an ally of the NDA, contested this seat and finished in second place with 67,672 votes.
Malegaon Outer was won by Dadaji Dagdu Bhuse of Shinde Shiv Sena, and Shivaji Nagar was won by Siddharth Anil Shirole of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Based on all this information, it is clear that in the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections, the Congress contested only in Malegaon Central and did not contest in Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar or Bhiwandi East.
To sum up, in the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly elections, the BJP and its allies did not contest in Malegaon Central, while the Congress ally, the Samajwadi Party, won in Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar and Bhiwandi East.
