With Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) hinting at contesting all 288 seats in the upcoming Assembly polls, the Asaduddin Owaisi-led All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), which is Mr. Ambedkar’s major ally, is keen on contesting at least 100 seats and has begun preparations for the same.
The AIMIM has also identified four key Assembly segments in Pune city, and is believed to have staked its claim to put up candidates on grounds that these areas had a sizeable minority population.
Senior AIMIM leader Anjum Inamdar, told The Hindu .“With the Congress and the NCP fighting for their political existence, it is the VBA that has emerged as a potent and credible opposition to the BJP, and the AIMIM has played a major role in that. While we may not have numbers, we have a formidable base and are confident of making significant gains in the State, and in Pune city.”
The party currently has one MP Imtiaz Jaleel (Aurangabad), one MLA Waris Pathan (Byculla, in Mumbai) and 137 corporators and councillors in civic bodies and municipal councils across the State, with a strong base in the Auranagabad, Solapur, Nanded and Yavatmal districts.
In this year’s general elections, the VBA and the AIMIM cornered the traditional Dalit-Muslim votebank in at least eight-nine Lok Sabha segments, leading to several major upsets in the State, including that of Swabhimani Paksha leader Raju Shetti in Hatkanangale (Kolhapur), and veteran Congressman Sushilkumar Shinde in Solapur.
Of the eight Assembly segments in Pune city, Mr. Inamdar claimed that AIMIM had a significant presence in four — Kasba Peth, Hadapsar, Vadgaon Sheri and Pune Cantonment segments.
“It is not our intention to come across as a Muslim-centric party. We will be taking into consideration all sections of society aligned with the VBA. The four segments in Pune city also have a significant number of voters from the backward segments and the Maratha community,” he said, and added that both parties have met twice in the past fortnight to discuss sharing of seats.
Mr. Inamdar and other leaders claimed that AIMIM is poised to snatch the votes traditionally held by NCP and Congress in the city and the State.
“With talks on pre-election alliances among the opposition parties still in a fluid state, we have already begun preliminary talks with like-minded parties, notably the Sambhaji Brigade,” he said.
“Being ideologically opposed to the BJP, our first preference will be the VBA. The Brigade’s work at the grassroots level and the community work of its parent body, the Maratha Seva Sangh will certainly prove of great help to the VBA-AIMIM front if we do ally with them,” said Santosh Shinde, district president of Sambhaji Brigade.
Mr. Shinde expressed confidence that the momentum of the Maratha quota agitation — and the pivotal role essayed by the Brigade in it — would also yield rich dividends.
“Our [Sambhaji Brigade’s] base is strong in Marathwada and Vidarbha. While we are generous enough to laud Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s efforts in ensuring the Maratha quota, it must be remembered that the foot soldiers in the agitation were from the Brigade,” he said, claiming that they still had widespread support at the ground level despite the BJP government’s ‘triumph’ in fulfilling the Maratha community’s demand on the quota.
At the same time, Mr. Shinde said that the Brigade had no wish to overreach itself and would play only to its strengths.
“If we ally with the VBA, we will only be demanding a couple of seats in Pune where we are in a strong position like the Parvati Assembly segment. The objective will be to pool in our collective resources to overthrow the BJP government,” he said.
