Former MP Imtiaz Jaleel from the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) said the party is keen to join hands with the opposition's Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) alliance for the upcoming Maharashtra state assembly elections, news agency PTI reported.
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).
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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 said the MVA taking AIMIM as part of its alliance will only benefit the former, adding that the party will contest the elections alone if the offer is not accepted. "If they think we have some power and have a vote bank, then they will ask us, otherwise they will not," Jaleel added.
{{/usCountry}}Jaleel said the MVA taking AIMIM as part of its alliance will only benefit the former, adding that the party will contest the elections alone if the offer is not accepted. "If they think we have some power and have a vote bank, then they will ask us, otherwise they will not," Jaleel added.
{{/usCountry}}The AIMIM leader targeted the ruling Mahayuti government's ‘Ladki Bahin’ scheme calling it just a deal to fetch votes for the alliance in the upcoming elections. "After so many years Chief Minister Eknath Shinde realised that he has so many sisters in the state. Now after providing financial assistance to women, those in power are openly asking people to vote for them (Mahayuti)...It shows that there is no love for the sisters. It is just a deal," he said.
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Jaleel, however, refused to ally with Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA). The VBA contested 35 seats in the 2024 general elections in Maharashtra and extended support to the MVA. The party failed to win a single seat and its chief Prakash Ambedkar was defeated by a margin of 2.76 lakh votes against the Bhartiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) Anup Dhotre in Akola.
Both AIMIM and the VBA were not a part of either the NDA or the INDIA bloc for the 2024 general elections.