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Poles apart but AIMIM looks to replicate Shiv Sena pattern in Maharashtra

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They may be at extreme ends of the ideological spectrum, but that has not stopped the hardliner All-India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen (AIMIM) from seeking to replicate the organisational pattern of the Shiv Sena for political success in Maharashtra.

After debuting with two seats in the Maharashtra assembly, the party is looking to make its presence felt in the civic body polls, including the BMC. The Hyderabad-based AIMIM, led by the Owaisi brothers, walked away with a huge chunk of Muslim votes in the assembly. It is also planning to expand to cater to other minorities and Dalits.

"Our priority is the local body polls," a senior AIMIM leader told dna, adding that they were trying to replicate Sena's strong organisational structure at the grass-roots level. However, AIMIM's local functionaries won't carry designations similar to their Sena counterparts. "We will have a strong network of ward-level office-bearers, who will be dedicated to solving the problems of the common people," he said.

In Mumbai and Thane, the Sena has a strong network of shakhas (branches) at the ward level, which handle civic and other issues, help it strike roots in local communities and provide the much-feared muscle power. Many veteran Sainiks, like Chhagan Bhujbal (who later quit the Sena), cut their teeth as shakha pramukhs.

"We will set up branches in areas where we plan to fight elections… Though we have received a massive response, we are being extremely selective. We will recruit only those without a criminal record," the AIMIM leader said. Every city or district will have a body of office-bearers under the president and secretary, who will then appoint ward-level committees.

Though only two (journalist Imtiaz Jaleel from Aurangabad and Waris Pathan from Byculla) of the 24 AIMIM nominees (of which some were Dalits) could win, it gave a scare to established parties in many seats. AIMIM chief and Lok Sabha MP Asaduddin Owaisi and his younger brother and Telangana MLA Akbaruddin had focused their attention on Maharashtra in the campaign.

Though the party managed to strike a chord with the hardline fringe, the response indicates growing anger among Muslims about being used as vote banks by secular parties without any positive change in their development indicators. For instance, while just 2.2% of Maharashtra's Muslims, who comprise around 10.6% of the population, have completed graduation, the percentage of women graduates is even lesser at 1.4%. The community suffers from regressive customs like oral talaq and nikah halala.

The AIMIM, which has its roots in the Razakars, who supported the Nizam of Hyderabad and resisted the state's integration into India, secured a political opening in the 2012 Nanded civic polls in Marathwada, where it won 11 seats by campaigning for issues such as Muslim youth from Marathwada being picked up on terror charges and the anti-Muslim violence in Assam.

Saamnaspeak
The Shiv Sena organ Saamna, which has party chief Uddhav Thackeray as the editor, in an editorial on Tuesday supported Congress MLA Praniti Shinde, who is former union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde's daughter, for her remarks that the AIMIM was "anti-national". The AIMIM has served a legal notice to Praniti, an MLA from Solapur city.

"What is Praniti Shinde's crime?" the editorial questioned. It also pointed to anti-Hindu statements made by AIMIM leader Akbaruddin Owaisi. "Praniti Shinde voiced the sentiments of the people of this country," it claimed, adding that the BJP government under Devendra Fadnavis needed to take a tough stance against the party.

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