A day after it denied permission to Asaduddin Owaisi, MP and president of the All-India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), to hold a campaign rally in the city, the Pune police on Monday relented and gave their clearance for the event scheduled on Tuesday.
On Monday, hours after the prohibition issued by the local Khadak police station, a delegation of AIMIM core committee leaders held frantic deliberations with Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone-1) Sudhir Hiremath.
“We reasoned with the police that Mr. Owaisi had not been restrained from addressing similar public rallies in Solapur and Nagpur scheduled on the same day. We further pointed out that he had never been hamstrung by any police prohibition for the numerous public addresses delivered across Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra in the past month,” said AIMIM leader Anjum Inamdar.
The police yielded to AIMIM’s remonstrations, while shifting the venue of the rally to from Kasewadi in Bhavani Peth to the Timber Market. Mr. Owaisi will address the public 5 p.m. onwards. “The police felt the previous venue was congested and could lead to traffic snarls. Hence, they have given us a new venue, which is perfectly acceptable to us,” Mr. Inamdar said.
Mr. Owaisi is campaigning for Zubair Shaikh, an MIM aspirant from the city’s Ward 19 in the city’s Muslim-dominated Bhavani Peth. Mr. Inamdar also said the party planned to take action against the Khadak police’s remarks against Mr. Owaisi. The Khadak police, while refusing permission, had said the AIMIM leader had a reputation for making ostensibly inflammatory speeches and that venue chosen was highly ‘sensitive’.
The AIMIM has cobbled up a ‘Third Front’ with smaller ‘backward community’ and Ambedkarite political entities like the Republican Yuva Morcha, the People’s Republic Party and the Bahujan Republican Socialist Party to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party, Nationalist Congress Party and Congress.
The Hyderabad-based party, which had an impressive showing in the 2014 Maharashtra Assembly election, has propped up 25 candidates for the 162-seat PMC poll, and 14 for the 128-body PCMC poll. While the AIMIM numbers may be modest, the Congress and the NCP are wary that the party could play spoiler in Pune’s Muslim-dominated areas like Kondhwa and Bhavani Peth by cannibalizing their votes.
