The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) is ready to forge an alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress in Maharashtra, said AIMIM MP and state party chief Imtiaz Jaleel on Saturday, 19 March.
He said the party was willing to take such a step to keep the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) out of power in the state, adding that the AIMIM was not the BJP's B-team, news agency PTI reported.
Jaleel also said that he spoke about the party's willingness to make an alliance when NCP leader Rajesh Tope visited the former's residence on Friday.
The NCP and the Congress are allies of the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra's Maha Vikas Aghadi government.
"Tope visited me on Friday... It is always alleged that BJP wins because of us (AIMIM- due to splitting of Muslim votes). To prove this allegation wrong I proposed to Tope that we are ready for an alliance. However, he didn't say anything about my offer," said Jaleel, while addressing the press on Friday.
'No Alliance With Shiv Sena'
Responding to allegations that the Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM was a "communal party", Jaleel said that if it was indeed communal for the Congress and the NCP, then how come they had no problem “aligning with an openly communal party like the Shiv Sena?"
He added that the AIMIM's offer to forge an alliance was not extended to the whole of the MVA government.
“It is restricted to the Congress and NCP. We were never open to joining hands with the Shiv Sena, which is a virulently communal party,” Jaleel said, as per a report by The Indian Express.
In response to Jaleel's comments, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut had said that there was no possibility of the Sena to ally with the AIMIM. “We will not have any truck with people who bow before the samadhi of Aurangzeb, who brutally killed Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj,” Raut was quoted by The Indian Express as saying.
(With inputs from PTI and The Indian Express.)
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