Following the surprising bank of votes won in the Bihar elections, AIMIM with chief Asaduddin Owaisi is all set to expand its party as it has collaborated with AMMK (Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam) of TTV Dhinakaran in the polls slated for April.
In the Bihar elections, AIMIM secured 5 out of the 14 seats it was contesting for. Opposition parties had labelled Mr Owaisi’s party as “BJP’s B-Team” and said that the secular votes had been split due to AIMIM’s participation, leading to BJP’s benefit.
The AIMIM is standing for 3 out of the 234 seats in Tamil Nadu under its alliance with AMMK. These include Vaniyambadi, Krishnagiri and Sankarapuram.
During 2016, Mr Owaisi had brought his state unit chief Vakeel Ahmed of Vaniyambadi on the forefront who managed to win 6% of the votes with 10,000 to his name. At that time, the AIADMK had won. This year, the Tamil Nadu’s unit of AIMIM gave Mr Owaisi 20
constituencies where he can win.
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While the ruling party AIADMK has tied with Centre’s ruling BJP and another PMK, the opposition DMK has allied with Congress, Left and other parties. Kamal Hasan will also be contesting for the first time with his MNM party.
Since his aunt VK Sasikala decided to step away from politics before the elections, TTV Dhinakaran remained alone in his battle to power.
He formed his own party following Sasikala’s removal as the AIADMK head as she was imprisoned for 4 years in a corruption case. Her protege, E Palaniswami took over and joined hands with O Panneerselvam or OPS that led to Mr Dhinakaran getting ignored.
Reportedly, AIMIM was on the lookout for partners and wanted to tie up with DMK. When they did not receive the response they expected, probably due to the presence of other muslim parties in union with DMK like IUML and MMK, they sought AMMK.
AMMK chief Professor Jawahirullah sai, “Owaisi’s party has no following in Tamil Nadu. He is clearly a B-team of AIADMK ally BJP and wants to split secular votes. It will not work here.”
Replying to the union, AIADMK spokesperson Kovai Sathyan said: “What DMK wished to do with AIMIM and backtracked fearing losing its majority vote bank is fulfilled through AMMK, the B team of DMK. DMK’s fake minority appeasement drama shall be given a fitting lesson in the upcoming Assembly elections.”
