Hyderabad: The All India Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen, which has decided to contest the polls to Maharashtra Assembly, declared its first candidate for the Aurangabad East Assembly seat on Monday.
MIM president Asaduddin Owaisi announced that Gangadhar Gade, a former minister of transport of Maharashtra, will contest the bypoll on the party ticket.
After winning sizeable seats in places like Nanded in the recently-concluded civic elections, the party has worked out a strategy to expand its base in Marahatwada districts which were part of erstwhile Hyderabad state and also to look at areas in Vidarabha and Konkan, which have significant Muslim pockets.
A senior leader of the party said that the MIM was looking at 60 constituencies by targeting Dalit and minority votes and initially has decided to field 40 candidates and if the response is good it will also field candidates in the remaining 20 seats.
He said that Muslims and Dalits are the deciding factor in 100 constituencies out of 288 seats of the state.
