Bhopal: The Congress' Arif Masood and Atif Arif Aqueel won the Assembly polls from Bhopal Central and Bhopal North, respectively, in Madhya Pradesh.
Another Muslim leader from the Congress, Nafees Mansha, who had contested from the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen after being denied a ticket by the grand old party, however, lost from Burhanpur.
Masood defeated the 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 26,987 votes from Bhopal North.
In Burhanpur, Mansha garnered 33,853 votes, which was higher than the victory margin of BJP's Archana Chitnis against her nearest rival from the Congress Thakur Surendra Singh. Chitnis defeated Singh by 31,171 votes. As per an estimate, Muslims, at 50 lakh, constitute some 7 per cent of MP's population, and are mainly concentrated in Bhopal and the Malwa region.
