AIMIM aims two Lok Sabha seats in Mumbai

The All India Majlis E Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) may contest two Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra, including one from Mumbai. The party led by the firebrand Owaisi brothers from Hyderabad is contesting in an alliance with former MP Prakash Ambedkar's Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA).

Apart from Aurangabad, where the AIMIM has an MLA, the party will also fight from the Mumbai North Central constituency, which has a strong presence of Muslims and Dalits.

Waris Pathan, AIMIM MLA from Byculla, said the party would fight the Mumbai North Central and Aurangabad seats.

Earlier, Imtiaz Jaleel — the AIMIM MLA from Aurangabad — had spoken out against VBA announcing the candidature of Justice (retired) BG Kolse Patil from the constituency.

Jaleel may get the AIMIM nomination to contest against the incumbent Shiv Sena MP Chandrakant Khaire. Kolse Patil subsequently shifted to the Janata Dal (Secular).

Pathan, however, said he was not eager to contest from Mumbai North Central.

"I am preparing to fight the state assembly elections from Byculla. However, I will contest the Mumbai North Central seat if the party asks me to," he added, stating that the Lok Sabha constituency has a strong presence of both, Muslim and Dalit voters.

Mumbai North Central is represented by the BJP's Poonam Mahajan.

The AIMIM has two legislators in Maharashtra, namely Jaleel and Pathan.

The VBA has been floated by Ambedkar, who is the grandson of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar and heads the Bharatiya Republican Paksha-Bahujan Mahasangh (BRP-BMS). The AIMIM has supported the VBA with Ambedkar and AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi holding joint rallies.

Unlike most leaders of the Republican Party of India (RPI) factions who have a base in the Buddhist Scheduled Castes (erstwhile Mahars), who form around 8% of the around 14% Dalit population, Ambedkar has tried to reach out to a larger 'Bahujan' constituency including OBC groups through his 'Akola pattern' of political and social engineering.

This is not the first time that a coalition between the Dalits and the Muslims, who come from the same social and economic category and form around 14% of the population, has been attempted. In the 1980s, Dalit leader Jogendra Kawade had joined alleged smuggler Haji Mastan Mirza to form the Dalit Muslim Suraksha Mahasangh. The Bahujan Mukti Party (BMP) supported by Waman Meshram's All India Backward (SC, ST, OBC) and Minority Communities Employees' Federation (BAMCEF) faction, had tried to field German Bakery blasts accused Mirza Himayat Beg from Aurangabad in the Lok Sabha polls.