JOIN USThe Hyderabad-based All India Majli-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) led by the Owaisi brothers — Asaduddin Owaisi and Akbaruddin Owaisi — has sprung a surprise by winning 26 of the total 113 wards in the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC).
The Shiv Sena-BJP alliance got 52 seats, Others/Independents 23 and NCP 3. The MIM became the second largest party in Aurangabad, the headquarters of the Marathwada region. Shiv Sena’s five-term MP Chandrakant Khaire leads the party in Aurangabad.
For MIM it is a major victory, after it won 11 of the 81 seats in Nanded municipal polls on its debut in 2012. In the 2014 Maharashtra Legisaltive Assembly elections, the MIM won two seats – Imtiyaz Jaleel from Aurangabad Central and Waris Pathan from Byculla.
“It is wrong to say that we are fanning communal issues. We have given tickets to all sections of the society, including Dalits and they have won the elections….let me make it clear once again that the MIM stands for secularism and uniform development,” Pathan said. “The Sena-BJP would have to work now as we would be sitting in the opposition,” Jaleel said.
The NCP, however, said the Shiv Sena and MIM had a hidden understanding. In the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation, the NCP unit spearheaded by former excise minister Ganesh Naik won 52 of the 111 wards.
The Shiv Sena and BJP alliance won 38 seats, Congress 10 and Others/Independents 5. “We will reach the magic figure of 56…some rebels are in touch with me, we also want the Congress to stay with us,” Naik said. After his loss in the Vidhan Sabha elections, there were reports that Naik would switch over to the BJP, however, that did not happen and the results now come as a major boost to the Naik family. The Sena-BJP also won the municipal councils of Badlapur and Ambernath in the outskirt of Mumbai city. In municipal council of Bokhar in Nanded district, the hometown of former Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan, the Congress won 12 of the total
19 seats.