The AIMIM, which is led by the Owaisi brothers from Hyderabad—Lok Sabha MP Asaduddin Owaisi and Telangana MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi—is planning to contest the Maharashtra assembly elections, scheduled in October
After securing a major political opening in Maharashtra during the Lok Sabha elections, the All India Majlis E Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) is looking at a new 'social engineering' model to shed the tag of being a party of Muslims.
The AIMIM, which is led by the Owaisi brothers from Hyderabad—Lok Sabha MP Asaduddin Owaisi and Telangana MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi—is planning to contest the Maharashtra assembly elections, scheduled in October, in an alliance with Prakash Ambedkar's Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA). "We will contest in seats beyond minority-dominated pockets. We will unveil our social engineering model. There are a number of Marathas who want to contest (as AIMIM candidates)... we also have Brahmins who are eager to contest in Vidarbha," said Imtiaz Jaleel, AIMIM MP from Aurangabad and the party's Maharashtra unit president.
The AIMIM is seeking 100 of the 288 seats in the state, and will hold seat-sharing talks with Ambedkar, a former MP and grandson of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar. Most of the seats that the AIMIM is seeking to contest from are in Vidarbha and Marathwada, which have a substantial number of Muslims. "A good number of candidates from other communities have approached us as well, including Dalits," noted Jaleel.
"In 2014, the general impression about the AIMIM was that it was a hardline, communal party. But for the last five years, we have not raised any communal issues.In Nandurbar, an educated girl from a scheduled tribe (ST) was elected as a sarpanch as a AIMIM nominee. Our party has also penetrated in rural areas. In the Lok Sabha elections, I secured substantial votes from rural pockets," said Jaleel, who defeated then Shiv Sena MP Chandrakant Khaire, Sena rebel Harshavardhan Jadhav and Congress MLC Subhash Zhambad from the constituency located in Marathwada.
In 2014, the AIMIM, which contested alone, fielded 24 candidates of which two—Jaleel (Aurangabad Central) and Waris Pathan (Byculla) won. It however, captured a substantial chunk of Muslim votes in seats like Aurangabad East, Solapur Central and Bandra East.
Seats Matter
The AIMIM is seeking 100 of the 288 seats in the state, and will hold seat-sharing talks with Ambedkar, a former MP and grandson of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar
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