MIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said that his party would fight the state assembly elections in alliance with Babasaheb Ambedkar’s party in Maharashtra.
Waquar Hasan | Clarion India
MALEGAON – Ahead of the assembly elections former Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA Mufti Ismail, along with the party’s 20 sitting corporators, on Thursday joined All-India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) in the presence of Aurangabad MP Imtiaz Jaleel in Malegaon.
Mufti Ismail, who fought elections from Malegaon Central on NCP ticket in 2014, said that he quit the NCP because no secular party raised voice for the constitutional rights of the minorities. The NCP, he said is no exception.
Speaking to Clarion India after joining the AIMIM, Ismail said, “I joined the MIM because all the secular parties, which claim to be well-wishers of minorities, abstain whenever any issue of minority rights comes up for voting. They don’t talk about the constitutional rights of Muslims. They don’t want to talk on the constitutional rights of minorities openly.”
He said he would be fighting elections from Malegaon Central on the ticket of the MIM and hoped that this time the MIM would perform better than the last assembly elections in Maharashtra.
Meanwhile, MIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said at a press conference that his party would fight the state assembly elections in alliance with Babasaheb Ambedkar’s party in Maharashtra. The AIMIM had contested the Lok Sabha elections 2019 with Vanchi Bahuja Aghadi (VBA) from all the seats of Maharashtra, but won only one seat from Aurangabad.
Showering praise on the MIM chief, the former MLA said, “Today, if anyone talks as per the constitution, it is Asaduddin Owaisi. Other secular parties claim to be flag-bearers of the minorities. But none talks about their constitutional rights as Asaduddin Owaisi does. Nobody except for Owaisi is taking up the issues of the minorities in Parliament.”
He was referring to the fiery speech the Hyderabad MP delivered in Parliament raising the issues of Muslims in the context of triple talaq Bill, UAPA and NIA amendments.
Acknowledging that the NCP MLA and the coporators joined his party, AIMIM leader and Aurangabad MP Imtiaz Jaleel tweeted, “This new addition will give a boost to the MIM which is struggling to become a national party.”
Till 2014, the AIMIM remained a Hyderabad-based party. Later, the party fought assembly and Lok Sabha elections in other states, notably Bihar and Maharashtra. In Maharashtra’s 2014 assembly elections, the party won two seats which paved the way for Owaisi’s ambition to be a national party.
