Upbeat MIM likely to contest from three assembly seats in Pune.

Upbeat MIM likely to contest from three assembly seats in Pune.

PUNE: After wresting the Aurangabad Lok Sabha seat from the Shiv Sena in the general elections, the Hyderabad-based All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) is keen on increasing its tally of two MLAs in the forthcoming Maharashtra assembly elections scheduled in October.

The top leadership is looking at contesting Pune Cantonment, Hadapsar and Wadgaonsheri seats in the district where the party is sure that they can consolidate a good number of Muslim and dalit votes. 

Imtiaz Jaleel addressing his first news conference after being elected the Aurangabad MP on May 27

 

In the last assembly elections in 2014, AIMIM contested 24 seats of which they won two seats—Byculla and Aurangabad central— garnering a vote share of 13.16 per cent with 4,89,614 votes.
However, leaders from the party feel that over the last five years people’s perception of the party has changed and the recent alliance with the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi has helped.
While the AIMIM’s alliance with Prakash Ambedkar led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) will continue for the forthcoming assembly elections, the parties are yet to announce their seat-sharing formula according to senior functionaries from both parties.
“The VBA recently declared that they are contesting all the seats and we are keen on contesting more number of seats than the last election. In 2014, we contested 24 seats and this time we should contest around 50 seats,’’ a senior leader from AIMIM said. While discussions are on, the prime seats in Pune area will be put forth in their list, he added.
AIMIM leaders are confident after the alliance worked well in the general elections, with VBA candidates getting 30,000 to over 1 lakh in some of the state’s 48 seats and the alliance having come a close second in nearly 55 assembly segments.
The VBA is backed by Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), Other Backward Class (OBC) and Muslims and they are sure to garner at least 14 of these seats, political observers said. 

Political analyst Chandrakant Bhujbal said the alliance will ..

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