HYDERABAD: In the first in its 92 years of existence, All India Majilis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen would be contesting Lok Sabha elections from outside Hyderabad. The party has fielded candidates from Maharashtra’s Aurangabad and Bihar’s Kishanganj Lok Sabha constituencies. It had earlier contested Assembly and local municipal body elections outside Telangana.
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Friday announced in a tweet, “Imtiaz Jaleel will be AIMIM’s candidate for the Aurangabad Parliamentary Constituency.” Jaleel is the sitting MLA from the Aurangabad Assembly constituency and it is important to note that there was dissent among the party ranks after the party initially decided to leave the seat to its coalition partner in Maharashtra, Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Sangh.
Following that, Owaisi intervened into the issue and sent party officials to hold discussion over it in Aurangabad. Later, Ambedkar also clarified that they have left the Aurangabad seat for AIMIM and also invited Owaisi to field someone from Mumbai.
However, the Hyderabad MP issued a clarification regarding the matter on Wednesday and said, “AIMIM has decided that it will be only contesting ONLY the Aurangabad Parliamentary Constituency in Maharashtra & will not be contesting Mumbai or any other seat.”
Meanwhile, AIMIM’s Bihar unit chief Akthar ul Imam would be contesting from Kishanganj, and on Wednesday he filed his nomination. Both Aurangabad and Kishanganj have a sizeable minority population and the party fancies both to win from their respective seats.