MIM looks for 80 seats in Maharashtra polls

Hyderabad: The MIM plans to contest 80 seats in the polls to the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly later this year. The party has two MLAs and had won the Aurangabad Lok Sabha in the recent elections.

The MIM has finalised a list of constituencies from where it desires to contest and sent it to its ally Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, headed by former MP Prakash Ambedkar. Leaders of both parties discussed the sharing of seats on Tuesday.

The MIM is planning to contest in seats outside the minority pockets after wresting the Aurangabad Lok Sabha seat from the Shiv Sena. In the 2014 Assembly elections, the MIM had fielded



its candidates in 24 constituencies and won from Byculla and Aurangabad Central. In secured about 5 lakh votes and drew the support of Muslim and Dalit communities.

Most of the seats that the party is seeking from are in the Marathwada and Vidarbha regions which have a sizeable number of Muslim voters.

MIM Maharashtra president and MP Imtiyaz Jaleel said, the MIM held discussions with leaders of the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi on seat sharing on Tuesday. “We discussed every constituency. Though we claimed 80 seats, but we would not stick to it. We are ready to leave a few seats for them,” he said.