20 august 2024 : Imtiaz Jaleel, a former Member of Parliament representing the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), expressed the party’s strong interest in collaborating with the opposition’s Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance for the forthcoming Maharashtra state assembly elections, as reported by the news agency PTI.
Jaleel said the aim is to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is a part of the ruling Mahayuti coalition that includes Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s faction of Shiv Sena and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar’s faction of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
“The BJP has damaged the country, so we want to keep them away from the government by any means,” he said when asked if the party does not have any issue with Hindutva preaching MVA constituent Shiv Sena (UBT).
He was talking to Marathi news channel ABP Majha after a meeting of the party in Mumbai. In reply to a question on the possibility of an alliance in Maharashtra, Jaleel said, “We had said this during the Lok Sabha elections and we are giving an offer to the MVA again to join hands as we want to defeat the BJP. But it is up to them whether to include us in the alliance or not.”
Jaleel asserted that the inclusion of AIMIM in the MVA alliance would primarily serve the interests of the latter, indicating that the party would pursue an independent electoral campaign should their proposal be declined. “If they perceive us as possessing influence and a voter base, they will extend an invitation; otherwise, they will not,” Jaleel remarked.
The AIMIM leader criticized the ruling Mahayuti government’s ‘Ladki Bahin’ initiative, labeling it merely a tactic to garner votes for the coalition in the forthcoming elections. “After many years, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has suddenly acknowledged the presence of numerous sisters in the state. Now, following the provision of financial support to women, those in authority are overtly soliciting votes for themselves (Mahayuti)… This indicates a lack of genuine concern for the sisters; it is merely a transactional arrangement,” he stated.
Jaleel, on the other hand, declined to form an alliance with the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA), which is led by Prakash Ambedkar. In the 2024 general elections in Maharashtra, the VBA contested 35 seats and offered its support to the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA). However, the party was unable to secure any seats, and its leader, Prakash Ambedkar, suffered a defeat by a significant margin of 276,000 votes against Anup Dhotre of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Akola.
Neither the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) nor the VBA participated in either the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) or the INDIA coalition for the 2024 general elections.
