All India Majlis e Ittehadul Muslimeen

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 (MIM) and the first meeting was held in the house of Nawab Mahmood Nawaz Khan on November 12, 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, alongside the Muslim League, were collaborators of British-occupied India forces. After the death of Bahadur Yar Jang in 1944, Qasim Rizvi was elected as the leader.

The Razakars, led by Kasim Razvi, were a violent, anti-Hindu Islamist paramilitary organization of self-styled "volunteers" formed, ostensibly, to "resist merger" with India. 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, were in reality responsible for large-scale pogroms against the state's Hindu majority of unarmed and desperately poor peasants. 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. Abdul Wahed Owaisi restructured the Party and Organised it into 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 (commander of the community).

Party vision and mission

The AIMIM as a political party purports to "protect" and "advance the rights" of Muslims, "Dalits, BCs, minorities, and all other underprivileged communities" in India. It "bears true faith" and "allegiance" to the Constitution of India. It purports to believe in the nation’s secular democracy and that it strives to "protect" and "enhance" its quality by effective representation from local municipal councils to the Parliament.

AIMIM 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 January 2, 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 and appointed the current 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 its entry into Maharashtra state by winning 13 seats in Nanded-Waghala city municipal council polls held on 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 (20 in Telangana and 15 in Seemandhra) 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.

In the 2014 elections, in its efforts to win a majority of divisions in the Nizamabad comprising a sizeable Muslim population and also the urban Assembly seat, the MIM this time focused its attention on the constituency giving it the second priority after the state capital, Hyderabad. MIM won 16 divisions, as much as the Congress, of the total 50 in Nizamabad City Municipal Corporation. However they lost the assembly seat to TRS. Later on, MIM made an alliance with TRS for sharing posts in Nizamabad. 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.

Non-Muslim candidates fielded by AIMIM

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, though he lost the election.

Interestingly 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.

Lok Sabha

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Andhra Pradesh Assembly

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Telangana Assembly

AIMIM gets Telangana state party recognition – indtoday.com

Maharashtra Assembly

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Municipal elections

The AIMIM won 11 seats in the 81-member Nanded Municipal Corporation elections in 2012. In April 2015, it emerged as the second largest party in the Aurangabad Municipal elections, with 26 seats in a 113-member Municipal Council. It contested 54 seats and won more than half of them.

Bihar Assembly

AIMIM contested 6 seats in Seemanchal region in Bihar Legislative Assembly election, 2015 but didn't manage to win any of them.

Tamil Nadu assembly

AIMIM contested on 2 seats in Tamil Nadu- Vaniyambadi in Vellore district and Krishnagiri in Krishnagiri district but didn't manage to win any of them.

Uttar Pradesh Assembly

AIMIM is contesting the upcoming UP election with Shaukat Ali as the State President.

Criticism

In 2007, elected and serving members of the party made threats against Tasleema Nasreen, pledging that the fatwas against her and Salman Rushdie were to be abided by. While she 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.

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 at the insistence of Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Ram Kadam. 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.

Other work

AIMIM announced relief worth ₹ 78.75 lakh for Uttarakhand flood victims in 2013.

AIMIM donated over Rs. 4 crores aid to the flood affected victims of Chennai in December 2015.