After assembly success, AIMIM to contest Aurangabad Lok Sabha seat

HYDERABAD: After tasting success in municipal and Assembly polls in Maharashtra, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) announced on Tuesday, that it would contest the Lok Sabha polls from Aurangabad.


Asaduddin Owaisi, MIM party president said Imtiaz Jaleel, who won the Aurangabad central assembly in 2014 on a Majlis ticket, will be its candidate for the important Parliament seat in Maharashtra. Aurangabad will be the third LS seat to be contested by the party.

While Owaisi is seeking re-election from Hyderabad for a fourth consecutive term, MIM’s Bihar unit president Akhtarul Iman will fight from Kishanganj.

Jaleel’s announcement as MIM candidate from Aurangabad, who is part of the Prakash Ambedkar led-Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi and MIM alliance, put all speculations to rest on Ambedkar fielding another candidate.

“The decision was taken after branch presidents and corporators submitted me a report,” Owaisi told reporters. “Imtiaz Jaleel will be AIMIM's candidate for the Aurangabad Parliamentary Constituency,” Owasi tweeted on Tuesday. In a video message, Jaleel, a former journalist said people of Aurangabad wanted Majlis to fight from the city.

“There is a lot of work to be done here and we are determined to bring in lot of improvement,” Jaleel said.

MIM also won the Byculla assembly seat with its candidate, Waris Pathan winning in 2014, after winning some six seats in Karnataka’s Bidar municipal polls a year earlier. In Bihar, AIMIM has no elected representatives and is hoping to open its account. “I told them (MIM Bihar unit) that Akhtarul Imam will be the candidate from Kishanganj, almost two years ago,” MIM chief told TOI.