AIMIM confident of winning over 20 seats in BMC Polls 2017

AIMIM is planning to contest around 60-70 seats in the 227 member BMC Elections slated to be held in February 2017. They are expecting to make inroads into the civic body and are expecting to win atleast 20 seats.

 

Currently, the party has no representation in the 227 member Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and it aims to make inroads in Muslim votebanks of Cong, SP.

 

In October last week, a team of elected representatives of the All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) from Hyderabad flew down to Mumbai. The team conducted a week-long survey in areas such as Mumbadevi, Byculla, Kurla, Govandi and Malad to understand local residents’ interest in the party, and willingness to vote for its candidates. “Senior party workers and corporators visited some areas with large Muslim population and conducted a door-to-door survey to understand the people’s awareness of the party’s work and their expectations. The findings of this survey will be an important part of the campaign planning,” said a senior party leader.

 

With the Congress party’s strength being seen as dwindling and with the Samajwadi Party, hardly expected to make a mark in these elections, the AIMIM leaders feel that their Muslim candidates are expected to garner the Muslim voters in their favour, which would have otherwise gone to the Congress, SP or NCP.

 

The party feels confident of coming up with a good show in areas like Golibar, Jogeshwari, Bharat Nagar, Juhu Galli, Byculla, Govandi etc.

 

Some good news for the party has been rolling in since the past couple of weeks with leaders from the Congress and BJP joining them. Akhlaq Ansari from the Congress, Waseem Qureshi from the BJP and Furqan Sayed from an NGO named Sahas Foundation, have joined the party in a span of a few days.