Jaleel running party at behest of Fadnavis: Quadri

Lokmat News Network

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: In a major political twist, the second-in-command leader in the AIMIM party, Dr Abdul Gaffar Quadri, has submitted his resignation from the position of Working President to the party chief MP Asaduddin Owaisi.

Later on, he held a press conference and made several allegations against Syed Imtiaz Jaleel. He claimed that Syed Jaleel operates the party at the direction of Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and challenged him to contest against Fadnavis in Nagpur rather than in the Nanded Lok Sabha by-election. He also accused him of breaking the alliance with the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA).

While addressing a press conference on Tuesday evening, Quadri confirmed that he had sent his resignation via email and WhatsApp. “ He (Imtiaz Jaleel) has influenced party leaders against him to the extent that they are unwilling to speak with him for even a minute. He has conspired against him. Many party office-bearers in the state would resign after I left the party, he predicted.

Quadri also alleged Jaleel for weakening the party, saying that in 2019, AIMIM formed an alliance with the Samajwadi Party for several seats in the state. However, he fielded candidates against major Muslim leaders from Congress and NCP to defeat them and Aref Naseem Khan is an example of it, he said.

VBA alliance broken

Quadri pointed out that Jaleel won the Aurangabad Lok Sabha constituency in 2019 due to a margin of one and a half lakh votes from the Vanchit. Later on, Jaleel sent a letter to Prakash Ambedkar just before the assembly elections, starting with "Dear Prakash Ambedkar," which shocked Ambedkar. In this letter, AIMIM allegedly demanded a total of 122 seats, leading to the breakup of the alliance, according to Quadri.

Seeking candidacy from Congress

Quadri expressed his intention to contest the elections from the same Aurangabad-East assembly constituency this year. This constituency has been released to Congress in seat sharing by the Maha Vikas Aghadi. Hence the discussions with the Congress party are underway. I had been to Delhi also in this regard and a final decision upon it would be made within two to three days, he claimed.