Group of AIMIM workers set to join ISLAM party

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: Several All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) workers are set to join the Indian Secular Largest Assembly of Maharashtra (ISLAM) party. They went to Malegaon on Sunday to meet former NCP MLA Asif Shaikh, who floated ISLAM party.The move left many stunned after the party won 35 seats in the Malegaon municipal corporation, with the party's Sheikh Nasreen Khalid becoming the mayor.Abul Hasan Hashmi, a former co-opted corporator of AIMIM, who was among those who visited Malegaon, said he, along with around half a dozen influential politicians and their supporters, is joining the ISLAM party."ISLAM party is the real secular party. We are confident that it will not compromise on its ideology while executing the development agenda," Hashmi said.Highlighting that ISLAM party only joined hands with the Samajwadi Party in the Malegaon mayor polls, with Congress supporting the alliance, Hashmi said three Hindu corporators were among the winning candidates of ISLAM in the Malegaon polls."AIMIM is vulnerable to compromises and, therefore, we are going to resign from the party," he said.With the entry of AIMIM functionaries, the ISLAM party is expected to make inroads in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, which has a sizeable population from the minority community.Ashok Hiwrale, the group leader of AIMIM in the local municipal corporation, said a handful of workers were leaving the party as they were denied tickets in the municipal polls."People are with us, and they will be in the future too. There will be no damage to the party at all due to the exit of opportunistic workers," he said.