In surprise move, AIMIM backs Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi candidates

AURANGABAD: The AIMIM leaders said they would vote in support of the candidates named by the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi for the Rajya Sabha polls held on Friday. The counting of votes for the polls was delayed due to objections raised by the BJP and MVA over casting of a few votes.
The House has a total of 288 seats but with the demise of an MLA, currently, there are 287 elected members. The NCP lost of two votes after the applications of Anil Deshmukh and Nawab Malik before the special court seeking release from prison for a day were turned down.
The AIMIM leaders claimed that they were approached by the MVA leaders to support their candidates. AIMIM has two MLAs - Mohammed Ismail, who represents Malegaon of Nashik rural and Dhule city MLA Shah Farooq Anwar.
On Friday morning, AIMIM issued a whip asking its MLAs to cast their vote in favour of MVA candidates - Imran Pratapgarhi and Sanjay Pawar. The announcement in this regard was made by AIMIM state president and Aurangabad MP Imtiaz Jaleel.
He said, “To defeat BJP, AIMIM has decided to vote for MVA in the RS elections. Our political/ideological differences however will continue with Shiv Sena, which has an alliance with Congress and NCP.”
Till now, the party has been critical of BJP, Congress, Shiv Sena and NCP alike. Imtiaz clarified that his party gave conditional support. “We laid certain conditions related to development of the constituencies represented by our MLAs. We have also demanded the government to appoint a minority member in MPSC and take steps to increase the income of Wakf Board,” he said.
Considering the total number of voters, the winning candidate will require 41 preferential votes, making every vote precious for all the four parties. MVA has a total number of 150 MLAs and is said to be in need of 164 votes to win all the four seats, while BJP, which has 106 MLAs, needs 123 votes for ensuring its candidates win.
BJP as well as MVA are heavily dependent on independent MLAs as well as those from smaller parties for winning the elections.