Nagpur: The All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi is hoping to secure a victory in the Maharashtra civic polls scheduled next week.
Speaking to The Hindu , Mr. Owaisi said, “Every political party will say it is going to win these elections. But we are contesting these elections for the first time and hopefully, the people will vote for us.”
Originally from Telangana, the AIMIM looks at Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh as the States where it could expand its base.
Once dismissed as “a non-series player and a spoiler”, the AIMIM surprised political analysts in the 2014 Maharashtra Assembly elections by winning two out of 24 seats it contested.
The “secular parties” began calling it “the B-team of the BJP” for dividing secular votes after it won 23 seats in Aurangabad civic polls in 2015 — pushing itself ahead of the Congress and the NCP — and emerged as the main opposition party.
‘Splitting secular votes’
The Hyderabad-based party is now being looked at as an emerging player and is grabbing attention of the national parties.
Congress leader Atul Londhe said, “To vote for the AIMIM is to vote for the BJP. This party is splitting secular votes, along with the BSP, which is benefiting the BJP. The same thing will happen in Nagpur and other municipal elections in Maharashtra.”
BJP leader in Nagpur Chandan Goswami accepted that the AIMIM’s presence in the election arena would help his party.
Identifying vote-banks
The reason for the mainstream parties’ concern is the AIMIM’s strategy of identifying vote-banks and contesting limited seats.
The party had fielded 54 candidates in the Aurangabad civic elections in 2015 and won 23 seats. It has now decided to go with the same strategy for the upcoming Maharashtra Municipal polls.
Sayed Imtiyaz Jaleel, the AIMIM MLA from Aurangabad and the party’s face in Maharashtra, said, “We are contesting 52 seats in Mumbai, 25 seats in Pune, 19 seats in Nagpur and 32 seats in Solapur in the municipal elections.”
He added, “The majority of the wards, where we have fielded our candidates this election, are Muslim and Dalit-dominated.”
When asked about the rationale behind this strategy, Mr. Jaleel said, “We want to start from the areas where we have a predominant majority [population wise]. We are also contesting a number of seats in zila parishad and panchayat samitis.”
Wooing Dalit voters
Mr. Owaisi’s speech in Nagpur hinted at another aspect of this strategy.
He said, “The Dalits have always been neglected by the so-called secular parties. But we gave a ticket to a Dalit candidate from an open seat during the Aurangabad municipal elections, despite having our [Muslim] majority in that ward. He won the election and has carried out exceptional developmental work.”
The party has adopted a similar strategy in other municipal corporations and is targeting the Muslim and Dalit votes, which were once a vote bank of the Congress and the NCP.
To the allegations of being called the “B-team” of the BJP, the Mr. Owaisi said, “I did field candidates when the BJP won all six Assembly seats in Nagpur district in 2014.”
He said he is not travelling to various parts of Maharashtra in this election. “I am traveling to build local leadership. Vote for us this election and we will field candidates for Assembly elections too. Winning or losing is not in our hands but we can at least sow the seeds.”
