By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
Mumbai: Late on Wednesday night Indian National Congress (INC) released its first list of 118 candidates out of 288 seats for the Maharashtra assembly elections due on 15th October. The list has 9 Muslim faces that will fight on INC ticket from Muslim dominated areas in the state.
The announcement has come at a time when none of the parties in the state have publicly declared about their alliances. Even though INC-NCP dialog for alliance is extensively undergoing since past week but Congress has rushed to declare its 118 candidates, which might anger already upset NCP as there are some seats out of 118 where NCP wanted to field its candidate.
Maharashtra Legislative Assembly
Nine Muslim candidates to run on Congress first list are:
Asif Shaikh Rasheed (Malegaon Central), Anees Ahmed (Nagpur Central), Syed Naqeebuddin (Balapur), Shoeb Guddu (Bhiwandi), Aslam Shaikh (Mumbai, Malad-East), Arif Naseem Khan (Mumbai – Chandivali), Baba Siddiqui (Mumbai – Bandra East), Amin Patel (Mumbai – Mumbadevi) and Abdus Sattar (Sillod).
Last five in the list are sitting Muslim MLAs from the party; Arif Naseem Khan and Abdus Sattar are ministers, whereas Amin Patel is Chairman of Maulana Azad Finance Corporation.
Asif Shaikh Rasheed is the President of Malegaon Congress and is son of two-time Congress MLA Shaikh Rasheed. He came to limelight when he took a 300KM foot march in May 2013 to demand reservation for Muslims.He will fight from Malegaon Central which was won in 2009 by Mufti Mohammad Ismail A. Khalique of Jan Surajya Shakti.
This time debuting MIM is also fielding its candidate from this seat as it is densely Muslim populated seat. NCP too is considering fielding a Muslim face from the same seat who recently joined the party expecting to gain a party ticket from the area.
Anees Ahmed is a former minister and one of the senior leaders of Maharashtra Congress. He lost the 2009 election to Vikas Shankarrao Kumbhare of BJP with the margin of 56312 votes.
MIM debuting candidates
On the other hand first time fighting state elections Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) on Tuesday released its first list of six candidates that include 5 Muslims and one Dalit face.
The candidates are Shajju Lala (Prabhani), Andul Malik Yunus Isa (Malegaon), Tauseef Shaikh (Sholapur) and Syed Moeen (Nanded). Imtiyaz Jaleel (Aurangabad Central) and Gangadhar Gade (Aurangabad East).
Imtiyaz Jaleel is well known face who recently decided to plunge into politics from his profession of journalism. He was until now NDTV Special Correspondent. Gangadhar Gade is the former Maharashtra Transport Minister and a renowned Dalit leader from the state.