All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen


The All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen or AIMIM is an Indian regional political party based in the Indian state of Telangana, with its head office in the Aghapura Hyderabad Telangana, India, which has its roots in the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen.
AIMIM has held the Lok Sabha seat for the Hyderabad constituency since 1984. In the 2014 Telangana Legislative Assembly elections, the AIMIM won seven seats and received recognition as a 'state party' by the Election Commission of India.
The AIMIM was initially a city-based party, with influence only in Hyderabad, but the party won two seats in the 2014 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election and one seat in the 2019 Maharashtra Lok Sabha and emerged as the second largest party in the Aurangabad municipal elections. The party president and member of parliament Asaduddin Owaisi received the Sansad Ratna Award for 2014. The party has long been seen as a political representation of Muslims in the state of Telangana now in whole India. On 10 January 2020, party president Asad Uddin Owaisi lead a protest against CAA, NRC, NPR at Shastripuram grounds in Hyderabad after Friday prayers. This rally named Tiranga Rally is organised by the United Muslim Action Committee, an umbrella group of religious and social scholars and several small welfare organisations of India. The protesters demand to revoke CAA immediately.

History

The party has roots back to the days of the princely State of Hyderabad. It was founded and shaped by Nawab Mahmood Nawaz Khan Qiledar of Hyderabad State with the "advice" of Nawab Mir Osman Ali Khan, the Nizam of Hyderabad and in the presence of Ulma-e-Mashaeqeen in 1927 as a pro-Nizam party. Then it was only Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen and the first meeting was held in the house of Nawab Mahmood Nawaz Khan on 12 November 1927. The MIM advocated the set up of a "Muslim dominion" rather than integration with India. In 1938, Bahadur Yar Jung was elected "president" of the MIM which had a "cultural" and religious manifesto. It soon acquired political complexion and after the death of Bahadur Yar Jang in 1944, Qasim Rizvi was elected as the leader.
The Razakars, led by Kasim Razvi, were an Islamist paramilitary organization of self-styled "volunteers" formed, ostensibly, to "resist merger" with India. Razvi and MIM wanted a Muslim country to be carved out of Hyderabad as South Pakistan. The Razakars operated as "storm troopers" for the MIM. The 150,000 Razakar "soldiers", supposedly "mobilized" to "fight against the Indian Union" for the "independence" of Hyderabad State. After the Indian annexation of Hyderabad State, the MIM was banned in 1948. Qasim Rizvi was jailed from 1948 to 1957, and was released on the condition that he would go to Pakistan where he was granted an asylum.
Before leaving, Qasim Rizvi handed over the responsibility of whatever remained of the Ittehadul Muslimeen, to Abdul Wahid Owaisi, a lawyer. Owaisi organised it into the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen. After Abdul Wahed Owaisi, his son Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi took control of AIMIM in 1975 and was referred to as Salar E Millat.

Leadership

In Indian politics

In 1960, AIMIM won the Mallepally ward of Hyderabad Municipal Corporation. In 1962, Salahuddin won from Patharghatti assembly seat as an Independent candidate and later from Charminar constituency in 1967. In 1972, he won from Yakutpura and later in 1978, again from Charminar.
In 1984 AIMIM emerged victorious in the Hyderabad Lok Sabha Seat and Sultan Salahuddin Owaisi represented Hyderabad till 2004. Since then, Salahuddin's elder son Asaduddin Owaisi represents the seat of Hyderabad. Mohammad Majid Hussain of the AIMIM was unanimously elected as the Mayor of Greater Hyderabad on 2 January 2012.
AIMIM was once reduced to one Assembly seat in Andhra Pradesh in 1994. On 12 November 2012, Asaduddin Owaisi announced the withdrawal of support to the UPA government citing communal policies of the current congress led government. All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen was then supporting Congress, both at Centre and at state level in Andhra Pradesh.
In the Hyderabad Municipality election of 2009, AIMIM won 43 out of 150 seats in the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad was appointed as Mayor of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, Mohammad Majid Hussain. Party president Asaduddin Owaisi won the Sansad Ratna award for his outstanding performance in lok Sabha.
AIMIM made entry into Maharashtra state by winning 13 seats in Nanded-Waghala city municipal council polls held in October 2012. AIMIM made its entry into Karnataka state by winning 6 seats in Karnataka local body elections held in March 2013. In the 2014 elections, AIMIM contested in 35 MLA and 6 MP seats in undivided Andhra Pradesh, but was not able to win any extra seats and won the same seven Assembly seats and one lone Lok Sabha seat in Old Hyderabad city.
Nizamabad has been a stronghold of MIM due to its dominant Muslim population. In the 2014 elections, MIM won 16 divisions, as much as the Congress, of the total 50 in Nizamabad City Municipal Corporation. They lost the assembly seat to TRS but secured the position of Deputy Mayor of the city. However, in the 2020 elections, MIM managed to secure an upper hand over Telangana Rashta Samithi by once again winning 16 of the 60 divisions coming only next to BJP's 28 seats. The TRS and MIM in alliance regained the city's Mayor and Deputy Mayor's post.
MIM also secured the Bhainsa municipality by winning 12 wards after a gap of 10 years. The party has for the first time opened its account in Seemandhra by securing five wards of Adoni municipality in Kurnool district.
AIMIM performed very well in Uttar Pradesh Civic Body Elections 2017 and registered victory on 31 seats out of 78 seats it contested.
In 2018, AIMIM has collaborated with Prakash Ambedkar's Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi party in Maharashtra. AIMIM & VBA contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra. Out of the 48 seats AIMIM contested one seat of Aurangabad and the VBA candidate for the remaining 47 seats. Imtiyaz Jaleel won the Aurangabad seat.
AIMIM has opened their account in Bihar by winning Kishanganj assembly seat in the bypolls. Qamrul Hoda defeated nearest BJP candidate by more than 10000 votes.

Non-Muslim candidates

AIMIM has fielded Hindus in various assembly and local body elections. The AIMIM selected Alampally Pochiah as its First Mayor in the City. MIM had three Hindu Hyderabad mayors- K. Prakash Rao, A. Satyanarayana and Alampalli Pochaiah. A Muralidhar Reddy, Hindu candidate being fielded for an assembly seat by Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen from Rajendranagar constituency.
In 2013 local elections party fielded a woman candidate from Hindu OBC, V.Bhanumathi, who won election against Hajira Sultana from Congress by 1,282 votes.

Reception

In 2007, elected and serving members of the party made threats against Tasleema Nasreen and Salman Rushdie for hatred towards Islam. pledging fatwas against
them. While Nasreen was in Hyderabad releasing Telugu translations of her work, she was physically assaulted by AIMIM party members led by three MLAs - Mohammed Muqtada Khan, Mohammed Moazzam Khan and Syed Ahmed Pasha Quadri - who were subsequently arrested and charged for the brazen attack. In 2016, the party leader Asaduddin Owaisi was criticized by members of the BJP and its affiliates for providing legal support to five Muslim youngsters alleged to have links with the ISIS by the NIA.
AIMIM party leaders have repeatedly made controversial statements while addressing the public; senior party leader Akbaruddin Owaisi has been arrested and charged several times for incitement to violence and spreading religious hatred. This pattern of identity politics was also evident starting from Akbaruddin's grandfather, Maulana Abdul Wahed Owaisi, who was arrested in 1958 for his own communal and inflammatory speeches. In January 2013, AIMIM Floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi was arrested for sedition, criminal conspiracy, waging war against India, and creating enmity between communities and for his speeches in Nizamabad and Nirmal. Current leader Asaduddin Owaisi and Akbarruddin was also booked for charges related to manhandling the Medak district collector in 2005. Some of MIM MLAs have also been booked for hate speeches.
Charminar MLA Syed Ahmed Pasha Quadri has cases registered against him for making hate speeches against Mahatma Gandhi.
On 16 March 2016, Waris Pathan, an AIMIM MLA in the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha, was unanimously suspended on charges of disrespecting the country for his refusal to recite Bharat Mata Ki Jai when asked to do so on the floor of the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha. He later said, "I love my country. I was born here and I will die here. I can never dream of insulting my country. Don’t judge anyone’s love for the country by just one slogan." He said he was quite happy to chant Jai Hind, Jai Bharat and Jai Maharashtra.
On 20 February 2020 at an anti-CAA rally in Kalaburagi Karnataka, AIMIM MLA Waris Pathan made a statement that was viewed as a veiled threat to the Hindu community where he said "Muslims in India may just number 15 crore, but they can overpower 100 crore people from the majority community"
However, he withdrew the comment two days later on 22 February 2020 after massive outrage and after a criminal complaint was filed against him in a Bihar court.

Philanthropy

AIMIM donated relief worth 78.75 lakh for Uttarakhand flood victims in 2013.
AIMIM donated over 4 crores aid to the Chennai floods victims of Chennai in December 2015. The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen Chief Asaduddin Owaisi donated over 4 crores aid to the flood affected victims of Chennai.
AIMIM donated over 50 Lakh aid to the 2017 Bihar flood victims in August 2017.
During the 2018 Floods in Kerala State, AIMIM donated 16 Lakh and medicines worth 10 lakh to the flood relief fund.
During 2020 Delhi riots, AIMIM organized two medical relief camps in Delhi & donated medicines worth 4 Lakhs. Asaduddin Owaisi announced that all the elected representatives of AIMIM will donate their 1-month salary for those who got affected in the Delhi riots.