LS polls: 15 Muslim candidates, including TMC's Yusuf Pathan secure seats

At least 15 Muslim candidates have won Lok Sabha seats across the country, including the TMC nominee and former India cricketer Yusuf Pathan who secured a comfortable victory over Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury in the Congress veteran's Baharampur bastion.

A total of 78 Muslims were in the fray in the Lok Sabha elections this year, a significant drop from the last polls when 115 Muslim candidates were fielded by various parties.

Congress candidate Imran Masood from Saharanpur won by a margin of 64,542 votes while Iqra Choudhary, a 29-year-old Samajwadi Party candidate from Kairana, secured victory over BJP Pradeep Kumar by 69,116 votes.

Afzal Ansari, the incumbent MP from Ghazipur, won the seat by bagging 5.3 lakh votes while AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi retained his Hyderabad seat by a margin of 3,38,087 votes over his nearest rival BJP's Madhavi Latha Kompella.

In Ladakh, Independent candidate Mohammad Haneefa secured a victory by a margin of 27,862 votes while another Independent candidate Abdul Rashid Sheikh won Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla seat by bagging 4.7 lakh votes.

In Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party's Mohibbullah won the Rampur seat by securing 4,81,503 votes, while Zia Ur Rehman won in Sambhal by a margin of 1.2 lakh votes.

Mian Altaf Ahmad of the National Conference won in Jammu and Kahsmir's Anantnag-Rajouri seat by 2,81,794 votes against former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti. In Srinagar NC candidate Aga Syed Ruhullah Mehdi secured 3,56,866 votes.

In West Bengal's Baharampur seat, first-time contender Yusuf Pathan beat Congress' leader in the Lok Sabha and six-time MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury by 85,022 votes.