Participating in its first elections for the Maharashtra assembly, Owaisi’s party won two seats – the prestigious Byculla in Mumbai and the Aurangabad Central seats – while its candidate Dr Abdul Gaffar Qadri lost by a slender margin in Aurangabad East and Maharashtra MIM chief Syed Moeen finished third in the Nanded seat, according to reports late Sunday evening.

 

This was a huge coup considering Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), which drummed up support with its parochial anti-north Indian and ‘Marathi manoos’ catchphrases and action, and seen by many as a potential kingmaker, won a solitary seat.

 

After winning sizeable chunk of seats in Nanded in the recently concluded civic elections, party leaders said MIM has worked out a strategy to expand its base in Marathwada region of Maharashtra. These districts were part of the erstwhile Hyderabad state. The party also plans to look at areas in Vidarabha and Konkan region, both with pockets of significant Muslim population, to expand.

 

Asked if there is any plan to expand MIM’s base in Tamil Nadu as the state will go to polls in 2016, Owaisi said the party has no plans as yet to contest there. 

 

MIM had fielded 24 candidates in the Maharashtra assembly polls. 

 

While MIM was leading in as many as four seats at one point during Sunday's counting, as the counting day wound up its candidate Warish Yusuf Pathan, a lawyer, bagged Byculla seat, a seat dominated by Marathi-speaking people, by trouncing the BJP’s Madhukar Chavan and Akhil Bharatiya Sena's Geeta Gawli, the wife of former don Arun Gawli.

 

In Aurangabad Central, former journalist Imtiyaz Jalil defeated Pradeep Jaiswal, a former mayor former the Shiv Sena.

 

The MIM has retained its Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat since 1984.