They used Muslims as political slaves. They are now scared as Muslims and people from other backward communities are looking at the MIM as an alternate, he says
Mumbai/Aurangabad: The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) Tuesday took strong exception to the remarks made by Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Chief Sharad Pawar saying that the success of the Hyderabad based party in the recent Maharashtra polls has scared the 'so called' secular parties.
Categorically refuting the NCP chief's allegations, Imtiaz Jaleel, the MIM's MLA from Aurangabad Central, called Pawar's statement "preposterous."
"The fact is that the MIM success - first in Nanded civic elections and now in the Maharashtra assembly elections, has shattered the so called secular parties who used Muslims just as vote bank doing nothing for their welfare", MIM MLA from Aurangabad (Central) Imtiyaz Jaleel said while talking to ummid.com.
"It is totally ridiculous to say that a section of the BJP is covertly backing us. Our fight has primarily been against the BJP," he said.
He said the parties like Congress and NCP have always been scared of any kind of alternate. "They used Muslims as political slaves. They are now scared as not only Muslims but people from other backward communities too are looking at the MIM as an alternate", he said.
"Pawar never said anything about us when we supported the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance, of which the NCP was part of, from 2004 to 2012. He forgets that the MIM had helped when the Congress Government in Andhra Pradesh was in a tight spot in 2011," he added.
Stating that NCP's declared support to the BJP government in Maharashtra has exposed Sharad Pawar and the nexus he always had with the communal forces, Jaleel asked, "Does Pawar think himself as the sole owner of Muslim votes? Are the Muslims only responsible to keep at bay the communal parties while he himself extends support to the BJP?".
Speaking at the start of a two-day party meet in Alibaug, Pawar said that some important BJP leaders were responsible for nurturing the MIM, thereby encouraging it to grab a significant chunk of the 'secular vote' in the recent Maharashtra polls.
"The MIM is inherently out to spread division in society. I have no hesitation in saying that a section of the BJP is backing it," Pawar said, implying that the MIM's success in Aurangabad district was possible only because of the BJP's tacit support.
Pawar's comments closely follow those of Congress MLA Praniti Shinde, daughter of former Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, who recently called for a ban on MIM after branding it a "treasonous political party."
The MIM snared one per cent of the total vote share in its maiden entry in the Maharashtra election arena, winning two of the 23 seats it fought and nettling the Congress and the NCP by eating their minority vote banks in Aurangabad and Solapur districts.
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