The Bharatiya Janata Party, along with its allies Apna Dal(S) and Nishad Party, overcame the anti-incumbency wave in politically important Uttar Pradesh, winning 273 seats. Among the seats that the saffron party won for the second term, there is one seat that remained the subject of discussion among the election pundits.
Deoband, home of one of India’s most influential Islamic madrasas, Darul Ulum Deoband, has been won by the BJP for the second time in a row. Situated in Saharanpur district, the city has 70% Muslim population, but 40% Muslim voters in the constituency. Bharatiya Janata Party’s sitting MLA Brijesh Singh defeated his rival Karthikeya Rana of Samajwadi Party by 7,104 elections.
Let us understand how the saffron party managed to retain the seat once again proving the election pundits wrong.
Owaisi’s AIMIM helped BJP?
Hyderabad MP Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehad Muslimeen (AIMIM) party is often dismissed by his opponents as BJP’s B team, Congress’ C team. The party aggressively participated in the UP elections, fielding 100 candidates, but could not win a single seat. It registered a vote share of 0.43 per cent.
Asaduddin Owaisi’s party AIMIM had fielded Umar Madani, nephew of Maulana Mahmood Madani, secretary of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind. In Deoband, AIMIM candidate Umair Madani got 3,500 votes. There was a difference of 7,000 votes between the BJP and SP candidates. Had the AIMIM not fielded its candidate, it could have been possible that those three thousand votes would have helped the SP candidate win. In the 2017 elections, however, the AIMIM did not field a candidate for the seat.
Anti-BJP vote split
Reiterating the 2017 results, the saffron party benefited from a split in the anti-BJP vote. Bahujan Samaj Party candidate Chaudhary Rajendra Singh and Congress candidate Rahat Khaleel together got over 53,000 votes, which could have benefited SP candidate Rana.