Division of votes responsible for my defeat: Naser Siddiqui

Lokmat News Network

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: Naser Siddiqui, the candidate of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen from Aurangabad Central Assembly Constituency said that one of the major factors of his defeat was a division of votes.

It may be noted that Pradeep Jaiswal, the Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) leader and Mahayuti candidate, emerged winner in the Assembly elections, the counting of which was held on Saturday.

A total of 2,21,576 votes were counted in 23 rounds. Jaiswal received 85,459 votes while Siddiqui got 77,340. There were 24 candidates in the fray. Naser Siddiqui lost the election a margin by a margin of 8,119 votes.

Dr Balasaheb Thorat candidate from Uddhav Sena secured third place with 37,098 votes. Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi's Javed Qureshi finished fourth with 12,639 votes.

The AIMIM candidate claimed that some dummy candidates were fielded to divide the votes of Muslim-dominated areas. “Another factor is that I was leading in the counting until the 18th round. I am surprised as to what happened in the last few rounds and I slipped to the second position. I will seek details from the Election Commission after thoroughly studying round-wise voting and consulting with experts,” he added.