[Asif Shaikh of Congress had won the assembly election from Malegaon Center for the first time in 2014 defeating Mufti Ismail - then a sitting MLA contesing as Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) candidate. (Photo: Asif Shaikh/Twitter)]
Malegaon: Sitting MLA of the Congress party from Malegaon Center Assembly Constituency, Asif Shaikh Rasheed, is struggling against Mufti Muhammad Ismail of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) by about 9000 votes, the exit polls conducted by Team ummid.com showed.
According to the Team ummid.com exit poll results, Congress candidate from the Malegaon Center assembly constituency Asif Shaikh Rasheed is expected to get a huge 94,252 votes. But, his projected tally is still short of some 9,123 votes as compared to his rival and former MLA Mufti Ismael's projected vote of a mammoth 103,375 votes.
These are just exit poll results, and not the final result. Since the contest between the two candidates is very close, the final election result could still go either way.
According to the final figures released by the local election commission officer Vijyanand Sharma, a total of 199,812 of the total 296,667 registered voters cast their votes in bitterly fough elections, polling for which was held on Monday October 21, 2019.
Of the total 199,812 voters who exrecised their democratic rights on Monday, 108,680 were male voters whereas 91,132 were females, taking the poll percentage to 67.35 - about 07 percent more than the state's tally of 60 percent.
Sitting MLA Asif Shaikh in a way fought the assembly election for the enitre five years of his tenure. He also has a couple of good projects, including Malegaon Urdu Ghar, a flyover on Old Agra Road, to his credit. Hence, he was quite sure of retaining the Malegaon Center Assembly Seat for a second consecutive term.
[Team ummid.com Malegaon Assembly Election 2019 Exit Poll, Not Final Result]
Asif Shaikh also smartly ran his poll campaign - a difficult task in the absence of any support from the Congress High Command and state leadership. However, it appears that he failed to convince voters and retain the seat for a second term, according to ummid.com Exit Poll results.
Team ummid.com Exit Poll results predict that Mufti Mohammad Ismail is likely to get around 103,375 votes whereas Asif Shaikh looks struggling with little over 94,000 votes. This is the first time when Asif Shaikh and Mufti Ismail were engaged in a direct contest.
Others in the fray, including the BJP candidate, are expected to get some 2,185 votes.
Team ummid.com Post Polling Survey results also showed that despite giving a tough contest to his rival Mufti Mohammed Ismail, Asif Shaikh failed to counter AIMIM President Asaduddin Owaisi's anti-Congress tirade.
Interestingly, in his election rallies in Malegaon, Asaduddin Owaisi did not utter a single word against Asif Shaikh, and instead trained his guns against the Congress party. He also did not ask votes in the name of AIMIM nominee Mufti Mohammad Ismael. Instead, he asked people to vote for "Asaduddin Owaisi who takes the ruling BJP to task, inside and outside the parliament, while the real culprit Congress uses Muslims just as a vote bank".
[Mufti Muhammad Ismail (Centre) had won the state election for the first time in 2009. The reason why Asaduddin Owaisi did not ask votes in his name was that Mufti Ismail's tenure from 2009 to 2014 was a total failure. (Photo: Mufti Ismail Twitter)]
Asaduddin Owaisi also persistently used the absence of Congress MPs during the debate in the Parliament on the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2019, popularly known as Triple Talaq bill, to garner support in favour of the AIMIM.
The total collapse of basic infrastructure in Malegaon and rampant corruption in the civic body also went against Asif Shaikh as the Municipal Corporation is ruled by the Congress party where Asif Shaikh's father, Shaikh Rasheed, is Mayor,Team ummid.com survey revealed.
On the other hand, in Malegaon Outer Assembly seat, sitting MLA and a minister in the state cabinet, Dada Bhuse of Shiv Sena, is set to retain the seat for the fourth consecutive term. According to poll officers, Malegaon Outer assembly seat registered a polling percentage of 59.35%.
Malegaon Outer seat has a total of 340,911 registered voters. Out of them, 202,319 voters cast their votes in the almost one sided contest.
Asif Shaikh of Congress had won the assembly election from Malegaon Center for the first time in 2014 defeating Mufti Ismail - then a sitting MLA contesing as Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) candidate, by over 16,000 votes. The AIMIM candidate in the 2014 state elections had got 21,213 votes.
Mufti Ismail had won the state election for the first time in 2009. The reason why Asaduddin Owaisi did not ask votes in his name was that Mufti Ismail's tenure from 2009 to 2014 was a total failure.
Meanwhile, local election officers are busy preparing for the counting of votes scheduled to be held on Thursday October 24, 2019. The process will begin at 08:00 am Thursday with counting of posatl votes. The final result is expected to be announced by 12:00 noon, poll officers told ummid.com.
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