The Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen seemed poised to retain its traditional bastion of the Old City as it scored its first victory with Mohammed Moazzam Khan, its candidate from the Bahadurpura Assembly constituency, being declared as elected.

Mr Khan won against his nearest rival, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi's Inayat Ali Baqri, who served as SETWIN chairman, by a massive 82, 518 votes.

Meanwhile, the party's former floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi was leading in the 19th round of counting against his closest rival with a comfortable margin of 67,297. Mr Owaisi's closest rival is the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Shehjadi Sayyad who was ahead of Congress candidate Esa Misri by over 4,400 votes.

Similarly, the MIM was leading in its stronghold of Charminar with party candidate Mumtaz Ahmed Khan, formerly a Yakutpura legislator. In the 10th round of counting, Mr Khan was leading against nearest rival, the BJP's T Uma Mahendra, with approximately 20,000 votes. MIM rebel and now Congress' candidate Mohammed Ghouse managed to garner 10,365 votes.

In the Malakpet Assembly segment, MIM leader Ahmed Balala was leading with around 12,000 votes against his closest rival, the BJP's Ale Jeetendra. The Mahakutami candidate, Muzaffar Ali Khan who is contesting on a TDP ticket, was trailing in third place.

The MIM, however, is being given stiff resistance in the Karwan Assembly segment with the BJP in the lead in 9th round of counting. BJP candidate Amar Singh made a significant gain against his rival from the MIM and former legislator Kausar Mohiuddin as the former leads with 6,402 votes.

Sources said that the electoral fight between the MIM's Jaffar Hussain and Congress candidate Feroz Khan could be a close contest.