Headlines
Sena slams AIMIM for playing communal card
Mumbai, April 24
Apparently disturbed by the
spectacular performance of Hyderabad-based All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul
Muslimeen (AIMIM) in the Aurangabad civic polls, the Shiv Sena said on
Friday it does not augur well for communal amity in Maharashtra.
"It's
a matter of concern how the AIMIM has got strength from Muslim
localities in Sambhajinagar where the Owaisi brothers had challenged to
uproot the saffron flag and plant their green flag," the Shiv Sena said.
Shiv
Sena calls Aurangabad as 'Sambhajinagar' and also been demanding it
should be renamed after the great Maratha king instead of the Mughal
emperor.
Ruing how some Dalit and non-Muslim candidates have also
won on AIMIM tickets, the Sena accused the party of "playing dirty
politics to divide the Dalit-Hindu votes", in an editorial in the party
mouthpiece Saamana.
"If the party, which was formed for the
interests of only Muslim community, continues to get such support even
from the Dalits, it's alarm time for not only social unity but also the
Ambedkar movement," the edit warned.
Pointing out that in the
last (October 2014) assembly elections, the AIMIM's leads in 50 civic
wards (of total 113) of Aurangabad had emboldened it to dream of
capturing the civic body in the Wedneday polls.
"Though that
dream failed to materialise, the very fact that 26 candidates of the
'poisonous party' have been elected to the civic body is definitely not a
good sign...it was like a 'crusade' (religious war) in Sambhajinagar
which the Shiv Sena has won and in which the Congress and Nationalist
Congress Party were blown away like dried leaves," the Sena said.
However,
despite the 'saffron victory' in Aurangabad, the Shiv Sena feels the
'green upsurge' spells danger since a communal party like AIMIM is
"unifying Muslim votes under an Islamic banner".
"Now, the Hindus
must open their eyes to the poll results and unite against it by
discarding their own differences; This is the clear lesson from the
Aurangabad civic elections," the Sena urged.
The edit followed
the AIMIM's stunning performance in the April 22 Aurangabad civic
elections in which Sena secured 28 seats, the AIMIM stood second with 26
seats, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came third with 24 seats in
the 113-member house.
The Congress bagged only 11 seats, while
the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) came home with two seats, and
smaller parties and independents captured 23 seats, with AIMIM poised to
become the main opposition party in the city renowned for its
world-famous Ajanta-Ellora cave temples.
Though the Sena-BJP
alliance secured control by bagging a total 52 seats, it still falls
short of a simple majority of 57, necessitating the support of rebels
and independents.
The AIMIM made a soft entry in Maharashtra in
2012 bagging 11 seats in the 81-member Nanded Municipal Corporation
elections that year.
Progressing steadily, it is now preparing
for the forthcoming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections due
early-2017, and other important civic bodies like Pune and Thane.