Samajwadi Party will be finished in Maharashtra after polls, says Waris Pathan

People want change and they are seeing MIM as an emerging party, which talks about the welfare of Muslims, Dalits and the downtrodden. We will definitely make a similar impact in the Mumbai and Thane elections as well. The Congress, NCP and Samajwadi Party are nowhere in the fight as they have all been in power for several years and yet have done nothing for the betterment of the people.

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While Congress and NCP have not done anything for the reservation for Muslims, the Samajwadi Party’s downfall is also imminent as from 22 corporators their presence is down to nine now. This is the first time MIM is contesting in the municipal corporation elections in Mumbai and the party’s cadre is very confident.

What will be your core agenda to approach the people ahead of civic polls?

Primarily, our focus would be on areas like Byculla, Mumbadevi, Govandi, Kurla, Bandra East, Andheri, Malad and other areas where majority of the population are Muslims or Dalits. We are planning to contest in these areas, though the party leaders will take the final decision. We will win a minimum of 30 seats in the civic elections. The agenda of the party is very clear that we want to work for development and our intention is to give proper hygienic schools, basic facilities like roads, hospitals to the people who have been neglected by all the political parties including Shiv Sena-BJP, Congress-NCP as well as Samajwadi Party. We will also try to ensure that the rag-pickers in Govandi who have lost their livelihood get an opportunity to take up other jobs in nearby areas. Even though we had no sitting corporators in Mumbai or Thane, an MLA in Mumbai alone has done a lot of work in the city and that has to be brought to the notice of the people. Our party president Asaduddin Owaisi, and Akbaruddin Owaisi have a dream to see that the facilities which are being given to the people in Hyderabad, should also be provided to the people across Maharashtra.

Following your victory in the Assembly polls, you have been isolated in some events. Recently some prominent members of MIM joined the Samajwadi Party. Your Comment.

Around 2-3 of our non-post holders who wanted to contest the election under MIM joined the Samajwadi Party. This happens during the election time. On the other hand, around 30 party SP members from the Govandi area have joined MIM recently and several others will join. Moreover, SP corporators are leaving their own bastions because they know that they will not get any support in areas such as Govandi and looking to contest from other areas. People across the country have seen that there is infighting within the party between father, son and uncle. If they cannot put their own house in order, how will they run a corporation in Mumbai or Thane. SP won’t have any presence left in Maharashtra after the civic polls.

MIM has been accused of dividing the secular votes and helping the saffron parties.

These allegations have been levelled at us for the past few years now and no one has any evidence for the same. In democracy everyone has a right to contest in the elections and we are doing so. We have not done anything to divide the secular votes. There are several places where we did not field a candidates and yet Congress was wiped out. They lost out because of their incompetence and lacklustre attitude and they blame us instead of taking responsibility for their debacle. For instance, we never contested in Bandra West, and yet Baba Siddiqui lost. Similarly, we never contested in Kurla but Nawab Malik lost.

MIM has always maintained that it is a party for the Muslims and other minorities like the Dalits. Are you planning to have an alliance with like-minded parties for the upcoming elections?

In Aurangabad, we had contested with 12 Muslim Dalit candidates and we won 26 seats. Even though the talks are on with other parties, the final decision of forging alliances will be taken by the party leaders at a proper stage closer to the date of elections.