Hyderabad: The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) failed to open any account in the Delhi Assembly elections, but the party might find itself being called the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) ‘B team’ as its Mustafabad seat candidate Tahir Hussain split enough votes to allow the BJP to win. Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) lost the seat by a margin of over 17000 votes.

According to the Election Commission’s data, BJP’s Mohan Singh Bisht won the seat with 85,215 seats, while AAP’s Adeel Ahmad Khan came second with 67637 votes. The AIMIM candidate came third by securing 33474 votes, which makes it clear that if the AIMIM had not contested the election, the AAP candidate would have sailed through.

The AIMIM’s choice of candidate Tahir Hussain being an accused in the 2020 Delhi riots case is in all likelihood what helped it come third place. In the 2025 Delhi Assembly polls, the AIMIM contested only two seats – Okhla and Mustafabad – and lost both.

In the past, the AIMIM has been accused from all quarters of helping the BJP indirectly by ‘cutting’ Muslim votes. While it has always defended itself by asserting its right to contest elections anywhere as a party, this time however its critics will have clear numbers to show with the Mustafabad seat in the Delhi election results. A political analyst who did not want to be named said that this was expected, as the AIMIM was very ‘smart’ with its choice of candidates.

“Obviously Muslims have not forgotten the Delhi riots and people are still hurt about it. So naturally they would have voted for its candidate. And the fact that it had such an impact that the BJP won in a Muslim majority seat is quite bad,” the analyst added. AIMIM functionaries however defended the party. “What about the other seats we did not contest? Are we responsible for the AAP’s loss?” asked a senior party member.

In the 2020 Bihar Assembly elections, the AIMIM surprised everyone by winning 5 seats. It had contested a few dozen seats out of the 243 constituencies. While it had bigger plans of expansion, four of its MLAs eventually defected to other parties since then. Similarly in Maharashtra, it won two Assembly seats each in the 2014 and 2019 state polls. However, in the 2024 state elections, it managed to win just one seat – Malegaon, which it never won earlier.