SP's Abu Azmi Retains Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar Seat, Nawab Malik Bites The Dust

Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar Assembly seat result: Voters of the Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar Assembly constituency again chose Abu Azmi to represent them in the Maharashtra Assembly.

Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar Assembly constituency result: National Congress Party (Ajit Pawar) candidate Nawab Malik, who has been surrounded by controversies over the last three years, failed to score big. A prominent Muslim face of the NCP, Nawab Malik went up against another tall leader from the Muslim community in Maharashtra — the Samajwadi Party's Abu Azmi.

Nawab Malik came in a distant fourth while Abu Azmi emerged victorious as Ajit Pawar's gamble with Malik failed to pay off. 

Abu Azmi, the incumbent MLA from the Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar Assembly constituency, had been winning the seat since it first went to polls in 2009. This was a high-stakes battle for both the NCP and the SP.

Abu Azmi, president of the SP in Maharashtra, is a former MP. His loss would be a major blow to the SP in the state.

Nawab Malik's candidature in the assembly polls was mired in controversies since the beginning as the BJP and the NCP failed to come to an agreement. The seat was allotted to NCP, but the BJP did not agree to Nawab Malik contesting the polls from the Mahayuti, owing to his alleged links to underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. However, Ajit Pawar refused to budge and moved Nawab Malik from his Anushakti Nagar seat to the Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar seat.

The NCP allotted the Anushakti Nagar seat ticket to Nawab Malik's daughter Sana Sheikh. She faced off against NCP (Sharad Pawar) leader and actor Swara Bhasker's husband Fahad Ahmad in Anushakti Nagar and won.

The Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar assembly segment recorded a voter turnout of 52.14%. The final turnout figure in Maharashtra was pegged at 66.05%, which is the highest in 30 years.

The Maharashtra Assembly elections for all 288 seats were held in a single phase on November 20. Both Mahayuti and the Mahavikas Aghadi launched fierce campaigns against one another.

This was one of the most crucial elections in the history of Maharashtra's assembly as it follows two years of political turmoil. Two of the biggest parties in the state, the Shiv Sena and the NCP, split after surprising rebellions by the leaders closest to the chiefs of the respective parties. Both Uddhav Thackeray and Sharad Pawar were shell-shocked after their aides Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar orchestrated rebellions to secure the CM and Deputy CM's seats, respectively. While the Shiv Sena split in 2022, the NCP split in 2023.

In this election, the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance sought to maintain its hold on power, while the opposition coalition, Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), aimed to build on its recent successes in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra.