By Abdul Hameed, TwoCircles.net,
Mumbai: Newly-formed Muslim Ittihad Front (MIF) opened their account in electoral arena by winning four seats in the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation by-elections held on January 18.
Javed Quraishi from Ward No. 29 Ganesh Colony beat his rival Shiv Sena candidate Jeewan Borade by 2748. Quraishi got 3088 while Borade just 340 votes. Likewise, Yaseen Akram defeated another Shiv Sena candidate Mangla Dajade in of Ward No. 31 Lota Karanja by more than two thousand votes. Mujeeb Alam Khan and Nisar Ahmad Khan were declared winner unopposed in Ward No. 43 Roshan Gate and Ward No. 42 Sharif Colony respectively.
What is noteworthy is that all these four winners had resigned on October 13, 2008 protesting against the police role in Dhule riots and atrocities to Muslims throughout Maharashtra. Three of them were then NCP corporators and one was independent. After the formation of MIF the joined it and contested the elections under its banner.
The by-elections were held on January 18 wherein more than 50% voting was recorded. The results were announced yesterday. The winning candidates saw a 40% increase in their votes in comparison to the last election.
They are happy over the rise in political awareness among Muslims and hope that the so-called political parties will give attention towards solving their problems and cease using them merely as vote banks.
‘The win of the corporators with such a huge margin is evidence that people are now fed up with Congress and NCP,’ Mujahid Khan, the president of MIF has said.
There is elation among the Muslims. They held a combined rally of the four corporators just after the declaration of the results. The rally was attended by the four corporators and prominent personalities of the region including MIF functionaries including general secretary Dr Saifuddin, vice president Khwaja Shihabuddin and secretary Suhail Zakir. They hope that in future the MIF will attain better success as did the third front in Malegaon.