AIMIM Likely to Contest 5 Lok Sabha Seats in Maharashtra

Mumbai: The AIMIM, which is often dubbed as the ‘B team’ of the BJP by other opposition parties, has decided to go solo in Maharashtra and contest at least five Lok Sabha seats in the state. Party’s Maharashtra working president Dr Abdul Gaffar Quadri said it is contemplating to field candidates in North Mumbai, Dhule, Nanded, Bhiwandi and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar seats in the state.

Quadri said that his party is conducting surveys in the five Lok Sabha seats in order to decide their election strategy. He also hit out at the Congress and the Sharad Pawar faction for treating the AIMIM as the “untouchable”.

Calling the opposition bloc “so-called secular”, Quadri said, “The AIMIM is not part of the INDIA bloc because of the treatment given to it by the so-called secular parties.

The AIMIM leader also criticised Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar who recently ditched the ‘Mahagathbandhan’, which included the RJD, the Congress and Left parties as well as the opposition INDIA bloc, and formed a new government with the BJP. “Certainly all is not well in the INDIA bloc,” he said.

Quadri also alleged that deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has failed to maintain the law and order situation has turned “Maharashtra into Bihar”. Referring to the incident of BJP MLA Ganpat Gaikwad shooting at a Shiv Sena leader inside a police station on Saturday, Quadri asked if Fadnavis will now use bulldozer to demolish properties of the MLA in a similar way it was used on the properties of Muslims at Mira Road after communal clashes there a day before Ram temple ceremony in Ayodhya.