MP: Congress' Muslim candidates win from Bhopal's Central and North seats
Arif Masood and Atif Arif Aqueel of the Congress won the elections from Bhopal Central and Bhopal North respectively in Madhya Pradesh.
However, another Muslim Congress leader Nafees Mansha, who had contested the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen after being denied a ticket by the grand old party, lost to Burhanpur.
Masood defeated Bharatiya Janata Party's Dhruv Narayan Sing by a margin of 15891 votes from Bhopal Central, while Aqueel won against the ruling party's Alok Sharma by 26987 votes from Bhopal North.
In Burhanpur, Mansha polled 33,853 votes, which was higher than the victory margin of BJP's Archana Chitnis against her nearest Congress rival Thakur Surendra Singh.
Chitnis defeated Singh by 31,171 votes.
According to one estimate, Muslims, numbering 50 lakh, constitute about 7 percent of the MP's population and are mainly concentrated in Bhopal and the Malwa region.
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