Mumbai: Imtiaz Jaleel, the only MP of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) in Maharashtra, is trailing by more than 19,000 votes in the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar constituency, which was formerly known as Aurangabad.
State minister Sandipan Bhumare, of the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena, was leading in the three-cornered contest between the two factions of the Sena and the AIMIM.
Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) fielded former MP Chandrakant Khaire.
In 2019, Jaleel had won the election and become an MP for the first time with a slim margin of 4,492 votes. Back then, Jaleel had the support of Prakash Ambedkar’s Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, which has a following among Dalit voters. This time, the VBA fielded its own candidate.
Jaleel, a former journalist, first entered the electoral fray in 2014 when he contested the state assembly poll from the Muslim-dominated seat of Aurangabad Central, and won comfortably. The following year, he helped AIMIM grow to the position of the principal opposition party in what was then the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation.
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, a city in the Marathwada region, saw a motley mix of push-and-pull factors that made Maharashtra a unique battleground in this Lok Sabha elections.
These included the demand for Maratha reservation, a clash between the two Shiv Senas, the overhang of a change in the city’s name last year, and the presence of a candidate from the VBA as Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi as well as the AIMIM feared it would cut into their vote share.
The MVA comprises the Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray), the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar).
In this backdrop, the AIMIM had adopted a “secular” campaign that was quite different from the party’s typical tone and tenor.
The party tried to appeal to Muslims, Dalits, Dhangars and Marathas with Jaleel highlighting his support for all communities and his “contribution” in breaking down caste-based and religion-based walls that segregated voters in the constituency.
The party’s campaign material too had its “kite” symbol in four colours — green, blue, yellow and saffron – and Jaleel even reiterated his commitment to separate quotas for Marathas and Dhangars, which have been long-standing demands of both the communities.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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