MUMBAI: The much talked about Dalit-Muslim alliance in Maharashtra came to an end on Wednesday when the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) released its first list of three candidates after party chief Asaduddin Owaisi backed the state unit’s decision to sever ties with Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA).
Lok Sabha MP from Aurangabad and state chief of MIM, Imtiaz Jaleel, released the list of candidates for Vadgaon-Sheri in Pune, Malegaon Central in Nashik and Nanded North in Nanded on Wednesday.
The AIMIM had contested 24 seats in the state in the 2014 elections and won two. After the Lok Sabha results, Owaisi had declared that his party would like to contest around 100 seats in the assembly election. While the VBA was busy in seat-sharing talks with the Congress, the AIMIM demanded 80 seats. Ambedkar declined the demand and offered only eight seats. The miffed AIMIM state unit then announced that it would sever ties with the VBA.
Reacting to the development, Ambedkar said that he considers the alliance to be intact as he had always dealt with the party’s central leadership and hasn’t received any communication in this regard.
On Tuesday, Owaisi backed his state party unit’s decision stating that they have been entrusted with all powers regarding the alliance.
The VBA, which targeted the 35 percent vote share of Dalits, STs and Muslims in Maharashtra, bagged 30,000 to over 1 lakh votes in many of the 48 seats it contested in the Lok Sabha polls. The AIMIM candidate from Aurangabad even won the election.
In the 2014 assembly polls, the AIMIM was able to fetch around five lakh votes. During the Lok Sabha election, the figure was surpassed but that was in alliance with the VBA. However, even independently, the party hopes to consolidate the Muslim votes in the state more effectively to get more seats in the assembly.