23 November,2024 06:02 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
In Pic: Ajaz Khan
Ajaz Khan, the 'Bigg Boss' fame actor-turned-politician, contested the Maharashtra Assembly election from the Versova constituency. The actor-turned-politician received only 155 votes after the tally was announced. Surprisingly, the actor has a grand fan following of about 5.6 million on Instagram, but that clearly didn't translate into votes. Notably, the number of votes Ajaz Khan received is about one-third of the votes that went to the NOTA option. The results show that the NOTA category received about 1,298 votes, which is significantly higher than the number of votes cast for Ajaz.
Fielded by Chandrashekhar Azad's Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram), Ajaz Khan got a disappointing response, and his political debut has fallen flat, much like his earlier foray into politics during the Lok Sabha elections. Earlier, Khan had contested from the Mumbai North Central seat during the general elections, but he also met with a disappointing response then. Though Ajaz failed to turn his social media following into votes, the Versova constituency witnessed a fierce fight between Haroon Khan of the Shiv Sena (UBT) and Bharati Lavekar of the BJP. The results declared Haroon Khan as the winner with a big margin of over 1,600 votes, while Ajaz Khan struggled to breach even the 150-vote mark.
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The BJP-led Mahayuti alliance is on course to retain power in Maharashtra. The opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) appeared to be stumbling, with its candidates leading in just 50 seats. The Mahayuti was leading in 222 seats, while the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) was leading in 53 seats.
According to the Election Commission's website at 3:30 pm today, the party position in the outgoing vote count is as follows: BJP 129, Shiv Sena 56, NCP 39, Congress 20, Shiv Sena (UBT) 19, NCP (SP) 12.
As the state awaits the final results, a key question looms large: Will the state assembly have a Leader of the Opposition (LoP)? According to constitutional provisions, the post of LoP is granted to the largest opposition party that secures at least 10 per cent of the total seats in the 288-member assembly, which translates to 29 seats.
