Rafique Aziz
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar
These days, the Aurangabad (East, 109) constituency is much talked about and discussed in the district amongst the political circle as well as the citizens. It is in the news for several political reasons.
The minister and sitting MLA Atul Save is vying to complete his hat-trick. The contender Dr Abdul Gaffar Quadri first resigned from his MIM party and tried his best to seek Congress nomination, but was in vain. Later on, Congress gave the AB form to retired education officer M K Deshmukh, but following opposition from the party’s loyal members, Congress withdrew its decision and nominated Lahu Shevale. This decision emerged as a surprise for all even the candidate as he was not even in the race for the ticket.
Dejected Quadri then contacted Samajwadi Party (SP) for nomination, but earlier, it was also reluctant to contest against Congress due to alliance, after a rift with Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), Quadri got the ticket and is contesting for the third consecutive term. In the last two terms, he contested on the MIM ticket but lost the elections.
As these political ups and downs were underway, the filing of the nomination of former MP Imtiaz Jaleel from the constituency shocked everyone. His presence in the constituency made the election interesting. Afsar Khan has also filed the nomination as a shadow leader intending to put someone to loss. The win of a new MLA is solely dependent upon the division of votes.
29 candidates in the poll fray
There are 29 candidates in this constituency, with strong contenders being Save (BJP), Jaleel (MIM), Shevale (Congress), Quadri (SP) and Afsar Khan (VBA). BSP’s Sheetal Bansode is also in the fray.
60% voter turnout in 2019
The total voter turnout in the 2019 Assembly election was 60.90%, out of which, 63.17% were males; 58.41% were females and Postal Ballots (PB) were 0.55%.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, voter turnout was 61.11%, including 63.56% males, 58.44% females, and 23.08% others.
Lookback at 2019 Assembly polls
33 contestants polled a total of 1,95,347 votes. Save (of BJP) won by a margin of 13,930 votes in the 2019 elections. He polled 93,966 votes, while the votes secured by other major candidates in the fray were Quadri (MIM)—80,036, Kaleem Qureshi (SP)—5,555, Kishore Mhaske (BSP)—3970 and Isa Yaseen (MBT)--2395.
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Vital poll stats
#Strength of electors - 3,54,633 including 1,83,530 males, 1,71,089 females and 14 from the third gender.
#Number of polling stations - 330 (all in urban areas), while three are critical.
#PWD voters - 2,042 persons with disabilities (PWD), including 1,119 males; 922 females and one of third gender.
#Voters of age 85 years and above - 3,822 including 1,756 males and 2,066 females.
#Service voters - 53 includes 50 males and three females.
#Polling staff - 1,584 including 396 presiding officers (PRO), 396 first polling officers (FPO) and 792 other polling officers (OPO).