“Muslims are my first constituents and I will still prefer calling Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar as Aurangabad: AIMIM Aurangabad candidate Imtiaz Jaleel”, Swarajyamag, May 12, 2024:
Syed Imtiaz Jalal, a former NDTV reporter and All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen’s (AIMIM) incumbent “Member of Parliament (MP) for the Aurangabad Lok Sabha seat has been in the eye of storm ever since his foray into the politics. Whether it is his opposition to the renaming of Aurangabad city to Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar or his alleged absence from the celebrations meant to commemorate Marathwada region’s liberation from Nizam rule, Jaleel has been party to several controversies during his previous stint as a Legislator and later as a Lok Sabha MP.
During the AIMIM leader’s parliamentary debut in 2019, Jaleel had managed to wrest the seat from Shiv Sena’s four-time Member of Parliament (MP) Chandrakant Khaire by a mere difference of 4,492 votes. Back then, AIMIM was supported by the Prakash Ambedkar-led Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) in a quadrangular fight between Jaleel, Shiv Sena’s Khaire, Congress’s Subhash Jhambad and the influential independent candidate Harshwardhan Jadhav.
The latter, a former legislator from Kannad and a Maratha reservation activist, who polled 2,83,798 votes, is said to have precipitated the defeat of Sena’s Khaire. Come 2024, the electoral fight over Aurangabad Lok Sabha seat has become even tougher with five major candidates in the fray. Notably, after the Shiv Sena split in 2022, Aurangabad for the first time will witness a poll bout between Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena’s Sandipan Bhumre and Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray’s Chandrakant Khaire who has been on a battle mode ever since he lost the seat in 2019…..”
Read the full article at Swarajyamag.com
