‘Chief taking decisions unilaterally’: AIMIM vice-president resigns

Speaking to the Indian Express, Pathan said that more AIMIM members would resign starting Monday. “Our party’s state president is working in such a way that BJP is benefitted (in the upcoming Assembly elections) because there is no vision on how to take the party forward, how to fight the assembly elections,” he said.

“The state president takes unilateral decisions… it shows that he does not want the party to grow here and win seats, thus implying that it wants to give BJP an advantage. If he has any election strategy, he does not discuss it with anyone in the party cadre or among office-bearers,” Pathan added.

When asked why such grievances were not aired before party chief Asaduddin Owaisi on April 14 during his visit, Pathan said, “He (Kabliwala) did not allow party workers to meet Owaisi sahab because he knew had a meeting been allowed, the grievances against him would’ve come out in the open.”

When The Indian Express reached out to Kabuliwala, he denied any differences with Pathan and said his resignation was sudden.

Pathan, however, added that he is not closing any options or future prospects of continuing with AIMIM at this juncture.

When asked of his future plans, Pathan, who is also an advocate, said, “Right now, I plan to celebrate Eid, whatever
happens (in terms of my political affiliation) will happen after Eid. Politics is a game of probabilities, I’m not saying no (to AIMIM), I’m not saying yes today or for the future, because I’ve no qualms with Owaisi sahab, or his work ethics.”

On April 14, Owaisi visited Ahmedabad to reach out to his party workers and look for new alliance partners. Though officially, Owaisi arrived in the capital to attend an Iftar event organised by the state AIMIM unit, the visit also served as an opportunity for him to galvanise his activists and boost the party membership drive.

At present, the AIMIM, which is estimated to have around 20,000 workers in Gujarat, has support bases in some pockets in over a dozen districts across the state, where the percentage of the Muslim population is relatively higher.

Making its electoral debut in Gujarat in civic polls last year, the AIMIM had carved a slice of the Opposition space for itself by winning 25 seats, including seven seats in the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation.

AIMIM had won the remaining 18 seats in the municipalities of Modasa in Aravalli district, Godhra in Panchmahal, and in Bharuch.

Workers detained

Six AIMIM office-bearers were detained around 4 pm Sunday, allegedly following a demonstration outside the office of a local vernacular daily newspaper Gujarat Today by the AIMIM members, said police inspector DV Gadhvi of Danilimda police station.

Gadhvi added that as of Sunday evening no FIR was lodged against the accused.

The six detained included AIMIM spokesperson Danish Qureshi, party incharge Khemraj Koshti, AIMIM Gujarat youth president Ajazkhan Pathan, AIMIM city president Sharifkhan Doodhwala, city youth president Shahnavaj Khan and AMC councillor Mushtaq Khadiwala.

According to a source at the Gujarat Today, office-bearers of the daily will submit a complaint at the Danilimda police station to lodge an FIR.

“Eight to 10 of our office-bearers had gone to Gujarat Today office to talk to them for falsely reporting that locals of Mirzapur and Juhapura had protested and flown black flags during Owaisi sahab’s rally. It was blown out of proportion…,” Kabliwala said.