Why Congress needs to seriously consider AIMIM proposal for Maharashtra elections? | Opinion Analysis News

Opinion Analysis News

The Congress and Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM should come together for the Maharashtra assembly elections. In the 2019 elections, AIMIM has been indirectly responsible for the defeat of at least 9-10 Congress-NCP candidates across the state

New Delhi: The assembly elections in Maharashtra could see one more addition to the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) of Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (Sharad Pawar). According to Maharashtra AIMIM State President and former MP Imitiaz Jaleel, the party has sent an alliance proposal to the MVA leaders – Maharashtra Congress Chief Nana Patole and senior NCP leader Sharad Pawar. He further revealed that while the proposal was sent about two months ago, his party is “still waiting for the answer in this regard from Congress”. Interestingly, Congress has denied having received such a proposal. According to Maharashtra Congress spokesperson Atul Londhe, he has not heard or seen any such proposal from the AIMIM and the issue of alliance with it has never even come up for discussion in the party’s internal discussions. There seems to be some confusion here at the present but the picture will certainly become clear with time. Maybe the courier delivered the proposal at the wrong address? Meanwhile, it is not a bad idea if the two parties come together. 

Lessons from Haryana 

In fact, the alliance should be a welcome move from the perspective of MVA considering the close assembly election that Congress recently lost in Haryana. The alliance with smaller parties like AAP and Jannayak Janata Party (JJP) in Haryana would have proved beneficial for the Congress but it spilled the chance in  overconfidence and arrogance. If Congress has really learnt some lesson from the Haryana defeat, AIMIM should be part of the MVA in the forthcoming Maharashtra assembly elections scheduled for November 20. 

According to Jaleel, if the party does not hear from Congress in next few days, they will go solo and find ways to capitalise on its strong presence in parts of Maharashtra like Mumbai city and Marathwada region. 

According to him, however, even in the case of alliance with MVA, the party will be unyielding of the five assembly seats of Dhule, Solapur, Versova, Malegaon Central and Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar. “We will not demand a lot of seats, but we will not give away these five seats where the candidate has already been shortlisted,” said Jaleel, hinting at a bit of obstinacy.  

AIMIM causing damage in Maharashtra 

AIMIM National President Asaduddin Owaisi is based in Hyderabad and represents the city in Lok Sabha. However, of late, the party has been contesting elections in various states like UP, Bihar, Gujarat etc. In Maharashtra, although the AIMIM has won only four seats since its foray in the assembly elections starting 2014 (2 seats) and 2019 (2 seats), it has succeeded in denting the Congress’s prospects on several others. In the 2019 assembly elections, AIMIM contested on 44 seats, all Muslim-dominated or with sizable Muslim population, winning two – Dhule City and Malegaon Central. However, it cut into Congress-NCP votes on at least a dozen seats and caused their defeat at the hands of BJP or Shiv Sena candidates. For example, in the Chandivali constituency, the Shiv Sena candidate Dilip Lande defeated Congress’s Mohammad Arif by 409 votes. AIMIM candidate here polled 1167 votes. In Nagpur Central, BJP candidate Vikas Kumbhare won by 4008 votes while AIMIM candidate managed 8565 votes. 

Similarly, in the 2014 assembly elections, AIMIM had contested 24 seats and won two – Byculla and Aurangabad. However, the Congress-NCP candidates lost about seven seats because of the AIMIM. 

AIMIM is a B-team of BJP? 

While the AIMIM has been causing damage to INDIA-bloc parties like Congress, SP, RLD etc by putting up its candidates on Muslim-dominated seats, none of these parties have ever had alliance with Owaisi. In fact, they allege that AIMIM is BJP’s B team and it puts up a candidate to support the saffron party’s candidate. AIMIM counters these allegations saying that it wants to be a party with pan-India presence and mass support rather than a “Muslim party” limited to Hyderabad region of Telangana.  

Meanwhile, the Congress and AIMIM are also not on good terms in Telangana where Owaisi has been supporting the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (then Telangana Rashtra Samithi) after the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh.

But things change in politics. It is time the Congress and AIMIM extend an olive branch and learn to cooperate. While their coming together may be bad news for the BJP, it will certainly boost the MVA chances in Maharashtra. 

(Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone. The opinions and facts in this article do not represent the stand of News9.)

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