Bengaluru: The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), which entered the Karnataka politics by fielding candidates in the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) held on Saturday, could not win in a single ward, poll officials said mid-way into the counting of votes which began Tuesday morning.
Trends available at 11:45 am showed none of the 28 candidates who contested the elections on MIM party tickets could win in their wards.
Confirming the reports, MIM Begnaluru unit Chief M Ibrahim while talking to ummid.com said, "All our candidates have lost the elections."
The disappointed MIM Bengaluru chief however said the defeat has not discouraged the party and it would contest the assembly elections with renewed vigour.
The trends also showed that the ruling BJP is ahead in 85 wards whereas the Congress is in the winning position in 65 wards.
The Janata Dal (S) is leading in just 11 wards whereas others are leading 06 wards.
The Hyderabad based AIMIM, which had stunned its political rivals by impressive wins -first in the Maharashtra state elections and later in the Aurangabad municipal polls, contested the Bengaluru civic elections for the first time.
In the run-up to the polls, the Congress led state government did everything to stop MIM a smooth run. It barred party chief Asaduddin Owaisi and MIM star cmapaigner Akbaruddin Owaisi from holding rallies in Bengaluru.
The state government also did not grant auto-rickshaw permissions for campaigns, and also denied the MIM candidates the partyu symbol, according the M Ibrahim.
Around 46 percent of the 74 lakh electorate voted on Saturday in 197 wards of the Bengaluru civic corporation across the city amid tight security, a poll official said.
Barring stray incidents and heated arguments by cadres and supporters of rival political parties, polling in 197 of the 198 civic wards was by and large peaceful.
The century-old Bruhat Bengaluru Mahangara Palike (BBMP) was expanded in 2007 by including seven city municipal councils and one town municipal council and 111 surrounding villages to increase civic wards to 198 from 100.
The day-long election was held in 197 wards, as the BJP's Bharati Ramachandra, 45, was declared elected from the Hongasandra ward (number 189) after the nomination papers of Congress candidate K. Maheshwari were rejected on August 13 for submitting a false caste certificate.
Delimitation of the wards on the basis of the 2011 population census, with 50 percent of them reserved for women, has forced political parties to field wives or relatives of former corporators as contestants in many wards.
In all, 1,120 candidates, including 197, 198 and 187 from the BJP, the ruling Congress and the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) respectively, a dozen from regional outfits like Vatala Chaluvali Paksha, AIADMK and Socialist Democratic Party of India (SDPI), All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and 399 Independents, including many as rebels are in the fray.
In the previous five-year term (2010-2015), the BJP ruled the BBMP for the first time by winning 116 wards, as against 62 wards by the Congress, 14 by JD-S and eight by Independents.
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