The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) on Thursday announced that the party will contest from seven municipal bodies in the state.
AIMIM national chief Asaduddin Owaisi said that apart from the municipal council of Khargone, the district that witnessed communal riots in April, the party will field its candidates in Indore, Bhopal, Jabalpur, Burhanpur, Ratlam and Khandwa. The party is dependent on a significant Muslim population in these areas.
mayoral candidate
AIMIM’s Madhya Pradesh working president Naeem Ansari was quoted as saying that while it will field candidates for councilor posts in these elections, it is also likely to field mayor’s candidate for municipal corporation from Burhanpur.
As of 2011 India census, Burhanpur is a Muslim majority city with about 50.53% of the city’s population professing Islam. However, the party’s Bhopal unit chief Tahir Anwar said that it may field a mayoral candidate from Bhopal as well. In these elections, the mayor will be directly elected by the voters while in the Nagar Panchayat and Municipal Council the president will be elected through the elected councillors.
‘Not likely to break’
While Dr. Ansari said that AIMIM is emerging as a third option in the state because “people are fed up with BJP and Congress”, both the parties insisted that AIMIM is looking to make a big dent in largely bipolar politics. is unlikely. State. In the past, although other parties have fielded candidates, only a few have been successful and that too due to more than a symbol of candidates. This time the Aam Aadmi Party has also expressed its desire to contest the elections.
In another development, the Congress on Thursday evening announced the names of 15 mayoral candidates.
On the party’s chances of losing minority votes to AIMIM, Madhya Pradesh Congress Media Department president KK Mishra called AIMIM the ‘B-team’ of the BJP. He said that the Muslims of the state are intelligent and will not become a puppet in the hands of AIMIM. , Even AIMIM’s Bhopal unit chief Tahir Anwar insisted that “the groundwork done by AIMIM since 2014 will help us reap the dividend”.
Rejecting Congress’s allegations, BJP spokesperson Pankaj Chaturvedi said, “Congress is making excuses as it is going to lose. BJP is based only on development. And as far as elections are concerned, anyone is welcome to contest.”
Another Congress leader admitted that in cities like Indore or Bhopal, where corporators win or lose by a margin of 25 to 30 votes, a newcomer like the AIMIM certainly creates some selection headaches.
Earlier, Dr. Ansari while targeting Congress and BJP said that the people of Madhya Pradesh are not happy with them and are looking for third option. He said that AIMIM is preparing to enter the political arena in MP from 2015. The number of party members in the state is now more than two lakhs. The party does not even have a full-time state unit president.