Contesting for the first time within the Gujarat Meeting elections, the AIMIM is specializing in Dalit and Muslim votes. Indicating the social gathering’s seriousness concerning the state, the place its solely electoral win includes 26 native physique seats in 2021, AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi has been visiting Gujarat steadily since Might.
The AIMIM plans to contest 40-45 Meeting seats, of the 182 complete within the state. Of those, it has thus far nominated candidates for 3 seats in Ahmedabad and two in Surat. Of the 5, 4 are first-time contestants.
Within the native physique elections held in February 2021, thought-about the bellwether for the approaching Meeting polls, the AIMIM had gained in 26 of the 40 seats it contested, together with 9 in Modasa, six in Godhra, one in Bharuch, and 7 within the Ahmedabad Municipal Company.
Already pushed right into a nook by the Aam Aadmi Celebration (AAP), the Congress fears dropping the Muslim vote to the AIMIM, and has lashed out with the acquainted accusation of the social gathering being “the BJP’s B-team”, trying to divide the Opposition’s vote share. Many of the seats the AIMIM is specializing in fall in Congress strongholds.
AIMIM Gujarat chief Sabir Kabliwala, a former Congress MLA, dismisses this, saying if any social gathering is splitting the Opposition vote within the state, it’s AAP. Calling AAP “chhota charger”, Kabuliwala says: “AAP has no party-level organisation within the state and neither is it fielding any contestant who can win within the election. They obtained a number of seats within the Surat Municipal Company (final 12 months) solely as a result of there was dissatisfaction with the BJP among the many public.”
Kabliwala additionally says that the AIMIM wouldn’t tie up with some other social gathering and that its focus is “primarily on Dalit candidature”. Declaring that it had fielded a Dalit candidate from a common seat within the Ahmedabad Municipal Company elections, he says: “We wish to shield the Structure and be a transparent voice of Opposition within the Meeting. We will be elevating problems with Muslims in addition to Dalits, and enhance their illustration within the Meeting by fielding Dalit candidates from 4 common class seats as nicely (other than reserved).”
Chatting with the media in Might, Owaisi had mentioned the social gathering can be taking over the problems of “growth and unemployment amongst youths”, in addition to attempt “to boost an impartial political management among the many Dalits and minority group”.
Attacking the Congress and BJP, the AIMIM Gujarat chief mentioned: “They converse in the identical voice and no good has come of it. Neither do they increase the problems of the marginalised. That aside, we additionally wish to take different communities — Thakors, Darbars, Patels – alongside.”
Whereas the AIMIM lacks good recognisable leaders, and there’s little signal of sustained campaigning by it on the bottom, Kabliwala defends: “We’ll persuade folks that they need to vote for us as a result of the Congress and BJP haven’t performed something for his or her welfare until date. We wish to break free the votes of Dalits and Muslims which go to the Congress. We’ll ask them what they’ve gained from voting for the Congress for thus a few years.”
Of the seats the place the AIMIM plans to area candidates, 5 are in Ahmedabad district. Ahmedabad has a complete of 21 Meeting consittuencies. It has already introduced candidates for 3 of the seats – whereas Kabliwala will contest from Jamalpur-Khadia; Kaushika Parmar is the AIMIM candidate from the Danilimda SC reserved seat; and Shahnawazkhan Pathan from Bapunagar. All three seats have Congress incumbents.
Sitting Jamalpur-Khadia MLA Imran Khedawala questioned the AIMIM’s motives in an interview to The Indian Specific earlier this month. “My seat has a 60:40 Muslim-Hindu ratio, however I can not win if I don’t get Hindu group votes. Kabliwala won’t win, however will immediately profit the BJP. I’ve a substantial lead, so it gained’t have an effect on me a lot, however definitely it should injury me someplace.”
Shamshad Pathan, who was previously the vice-president of the AIMIM in Gujarat and its Ahmedabad metropolis head, earlier than exiting the social gathering in April this 12 months, calls such allegations of “vote-cutting” a facile excuse.
“In a democracy, a number of events contest, and you may see such examples in Delhi, West Bengal, Bihar and so on. It can’t be that the Congress does no work all through the five-year tenure, and on the final second, earlier than the Meeting elections, complains about its vote share getting lower. Had it labored, this may not occur,” Pathan provides.
A practising advocate and a social activist, Pathan provides that in distinction, the BJP has “panna pramukhs (for each web page of the voter record)”. “That’s the stage of floor attain they’ve. What stops different events from guaranteeing that type of floor presence?”
In Surat’s Limbayat seat, the AIMIM candidate is Abdul Bashir Shaikh, a 33-year-old resident of the world who initially belongs to Jalgaon in Maharashtra and is employed in Surat’s textile business. The social gathering seems to be playing on the truth that other than a considerable Muslim inhabitants, the seat has a big proportion comprising migrants hailing from Maharashtra, adopted by Telangana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Odisha.
The Limbayat seat is at the moment held by the BJP’s Sangeeta Patil, who is taken into account a detailed aide of the social gathering’s Gujarat chief, C R Paatil. Limbayat is a part of Paatil’s parliamentary constituency.
Abdul Bashir Shaikh, who was beforehand within the NCP, joined the AIMIM in 2019 and is combating his first election, admits he faces a “powerful” contest. However, he provides, other than the Muslim voters, he’s banking on the huge group of Hindus who assist him as a result of his “social work”. “We’ll perform door-to-door campaigns and work exhausting.”
From Surat North, the AIMIM has introduced Wasim Qureshi, its former Surat metropolis president, because the candidate. This seat too has a BJP incumbent.
The AIMIM additionally plans to announce candidates for Dariyapur and Vejalpur in Ahmedabad, at the moment held by the Congress and BJP respectively.
Other than Ahmedabad and Surat, the AIMIM is eyeing the Vadgam seat in Banaskantha district. This constituency is at the moment held by Unbiased MLA-turned-Congress chief Jignesh Mevani.
The social gathering’s different candidates are more likely to embody 5 in Kutch (three from reserved seats). Of those, two are held by the BJP and one by a Congress MLA. Giving the break-up of Dalit and Muslim voters in these seats, Kabliwala says they collectively make up round 1 lakh in every.
In Saurashtra, the social gathering plans to area candidates in Mangrol in Junagadh (ST reserved seat, held by the BJP) and Somnath (Congress incumbent), other than combating Anand (proper now with the Congress) and Godhra (it has a BJP MLA).
The AIMIM marketing campaign, nonetheless, has been affected by exits. Between April and July, a number of resigned accusing Kabliwala of taking unilateral choices, in addition to expressing apprehension that its plans would “profit the BJP” within the Meeting polls. Round 4,000 members of the social gathering, principally ground-level staff however 68 main staff, give up on this interval.
Shamshad Pathan says that whereas allegations of the AIMIM serving to the BJP might need no fact, “the actual fact is, they haven’t any floor presence… I think that some might even lose their deposits on this election”. He additionally questions the failure of the social gathering to obviously increase factors or points that it needs to handle. “What’s going to the voters vote for?”
In the meantime, there’s silent campaigning on in Surat, by means of the social media, to persuade individuals to not vote for AIMIM candidates. Secret group conferences are being held amongst Muslim pockets by group leaders.
Admitting this, Muslim group chief and social employee Salim Ghadiyali says: “They’re merely a celebration which divides the Muslim vote. In Surat, Muslims are in giant numbers within the Surat North and Limbayat seats, and it’s right here that the AIMIM has fielded candidates. They did the identical factor in UP, fielding candidates in 100 seats the place Muslims dominated.”
In UP, the AIMIM shaped a “third entrance”, known as the Bhagidari Parivartan Morcha, with the Jan Adhikar Celebration led by former UP minister Babu Singh Kushwaha and the Bharat Mukti Morcha headed by Waman Meshram. The AIMIM contested 100 seats, however couldn’t win any and obtained solely 0.49% of the overall votes polled within the state.