Maharastra assembly polls: Allotted only 8 seats, AIMIM calls off alliance with VBA

Earlier this week, Ambedkar is said to have conveyed to the AIMIM that the VBA’s parliamentary board had decided to allot it only eight seats. In July, the AIMIM had laid claim to close to 80 seats, which it was interested to contest on.

“We could not reach a comfortable and respectable figure of seat distribution despite talks. VBA conveyed that it could allot only eight of the 288 Assembly seats to us. This is simply unacceptable and unjustified, as the list of seats does not even include the Aurangabad Central Lok Sabha constituency, which AIMIM had won in the 2014 state polls,” party state president Imtiaz Jaleel said in a statement.

Jaleel was the sitting MLA from Aurangabad Central seat before winning the Lok Sabha polls from Aurangabad constituency — the lone seat that the alliance had won earlier this year.

“We respect and honour Ambedkarji. We wish him and the VBA good luck. Irrespective of our alliance, we are committed and will continue to take up issues faced by the weaker sections of the society,” Jaleel said.

AIMIM leaders claimed that in spite of the party’s repeated requests to Ambedkar to formalise the seat-sharing arrangement, the latter refrained from expediting the talks.

While Ambedkar was not available for comments, the VBA issued a statement saying that the AIMIM is yet to officially intimate it about the development. The VBA claimed that the AIMIM had sent it a list of 17 seats, which it was interested to contest.

“Till we receive an intimation from AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi that that the alliance is off, we are of the belief that the association still stands,” the VBA said in the release.

In the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra, the Congress had tried hard to have Ambedkar as an ally. However, Ambedkar decided to contest all the 48 seats on his own along with AIMIM.

Though VBA won only one seat, it ate into the vote share of the Opposition alliance and affected the electoral outcome in at least nine Lok Sabha seats, which the Congress and NCP combine lost. The VBA candidates received close to 41 lakh votes.

While VBA’s performance was lauded, the alliance was under stress during the Lok Sabha elections.

Ambedkar had unilaterally announced that the VBA candidate for Aurangabad would be former high court judge B G Kolse Patil. The move had irked the AIMIM rank and file in Aurangabad, which has a substantial Muslim population and where the party enjoys a support base.

The AIMIM had to put pressure on Ambedkar to change the candidate after Jaleel threatened to quit the party. After Jaleel won, he was subsequently made the AIMIM state president. The strained relationship between Jaleel and Ambedkar also seem to have played a role in the alliance being called off.

The AIMIM had made an electoral entry into state politics in 2014 when it had put up 24 candidates. Two of its candidates had won and the party had managed to poll 4.89 lakh votes. Since then, it has gradually been expanding its footprint in Maharashtra and has over 120 corporators and councillors across various cities and towns.

Sources said the party is looking at around 20 seats where it is confident of making an impact in the state elections.