Waquar Hasan | Clarion India
NEW DELHI — The All India Muslim Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen, perceived as a party of only Muslims, has fielded four Hindu candidates in the assembly election in Maharashtra later this month.
The party is focusing on winnability this time instead of expanding the party’s footprint. Therefore, it wanted to contest far fewer seats than last year, a senior party leader has said.
Of the 16 party candidates, there are 12 Muslims and the rest seats have gone to non-Muslims. A source from the Hyderabad-based party, which has been striving to expand its footprints across the country since 2014, told Clarion India that all four Hindu candidates are from the SC/ST communities. Among them two are women.
“All these seats are reserved for SCs. That’s why, SC candidates have been fielded from these constituencies,” he said.
The party has fielded Samrat Surwade from Murtizapur constituency in Akola district. Surwade, who describes himself as Bhim Yodha (Bhim fighter), was the district vice president of Bharipa Bahujan Masangh, a party founded by Prakash Ambedkar on 4 July, 1994. The party was a splinter group of the Republican Party of India and had its roots in the Scheduled Castes Federation led by BR Ambedkar. Surwade is an advocate by profession. He has also worked at Bharat Mukti Morcha.
He has promised free ambulance service for the people of his constituency. He calls himself a common man from a poor family.
Another Hindu candidate fielded by the AIMIM is Kirti Dongre from north Nagpur. An engineer by profession, she lives in Pune. She is the state president of AIMIM’s women’s wing. On 30 October, she filed her nomination papers after taking out a march along with a copy of the country’s constitution in her hand.
Mahesh Kamble from Miraj of Sangli district and Babit Kanade from Kurla constituency in Mumbai are the other Hindu candidates.
Muslim candidates fielded by the AIMIM are Mufti Ismail Qasmi from Malegaon Central, Faruk Shah Anwar from Dhule, and Syed Imtiaz Jaleel from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Aurangabad) East, Raees Lashkaria from Versova, Faiyaz Ahmad Khan from Byculla, and Ateeque Ahmad Khan from Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar and Waris Pathan from Bhiwandi and Syed Moin from Nanded South. Other candidates include Naser Siddiqui (Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Central), Saif Pathan (Mumbra Kalwa), Farooq Shabdi (Solapur), Mahesh Kamble and Mohammad Yusuf (Karanja Manora).
The party contested 44 seats in 2019. In 2014, it had fielded 22 candidates.
AIMIM leader Imtiaz Jaleel said that they are focusing on winnability this time instead of expanding the party’s footprint. Therefore, it wanted to contest far fewer seats than last year.
“We had received 230 applications from ticket aspirants, but we decided that instead of big numbers we must focus on important seats which we can win. We are very sure that the seats we have selected are going to give us positive results,” Jaleel was quoted by Indian Express as saying.
He also feels that his party can get a chance to be king-maker in this election.
“This is a complex election. There are too many players. There is no certainty that the two main alliances (the ruling Mahayuti and the Opposition MVA) will survive post-elections. It is likely no one will get a clear majority. In such a situation, any party that has five-seven MLAs will become kingmaker,” he added.
