04 May,2024 04:33 PM IST | Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar | mid-day online correspondent
Imtiaz Jaleel. Pic/X
The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) MP Imtiaz Jaleel has said that all political parties need votes from the Muslim community but do not want their leadership, according to the PTI.
Addressing an election rally in Sajapur in Maharashtra's Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Imtiaz Jaleel claimed that no one from the Muslim community was fielded in the Lok Sabha elections 2024 in 11 states in the country, as per the PTI.
Imtiaz Jaleel is contesting the election from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar in Maharashtra (earlier Aurangabad), the seat he won in 2019.
The constituency will go to polls on May 13 in the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha elections 2024.
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"All political parties in the country need your votes, but they do not want Muslim leadership. Major political parties have not fielded Muslim candidates in Maharashtra, and there are 11 states where candidature was not given to Muslims," the AIMIM leader said, according to the PTI.
Imtiaz Jaleel further pointed out that there were no Muslim MPs in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Goa and Delhi.
"If we don't contest, then how will we win? When I contested the Lok Sabha elections in 2019, leaders in the city said I can't win. But people stood with us," he said.
Imtiaz Jaleel defeated undivided Shiv Sena's candidate Chandrakant Khaire by a margin of 4,492 votes in the 2019 elections. Independent candidate Harshawardhan Jadhav had secured 2.83 lakh votes and contributed to Khaire's defeat, the news agency reported on Saturday.
Earlier, Imtiaz Jaleel, who is also the Maharashtra unit president of the Hyderabad-based party, was keen to contest from one of the Lok Sabha constituencies in Mumbai, but AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi renominated the journalist-turned-politician from his current seat which will go to polls on May 13 in phase four.
Imtiaz Jaleel had expressed interest in contesting from one of the Lok Sabha seats in Mumbai and sent a proposal to the party leadership in this regard. The Lok Sabha member did not reply to phone calls seeking reaction over renomination from his sitting seat.
The constituency has 30,32,546 registered voters, including 41,465 newly-enrolled electors, and they will be casting their ballot at 2,040 booths, an official said, the news agency reported on Monday.
(with PTI inputs)
