After securing a major political opening in Maharashtra during the Lok Sabha elections, the All India Majlis E Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) is looking at a new 'social engineering' model to shed the tag of being a party of Muslims.
The AIMIM, which is led by the Owaisi brothers from Hyderabad—Lok Sabha MP Asaduddin Owaisi and Telangana MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi—is planning to contest the Maharashtra assembly elections, scheduled in October, in an alliance with Prakash Ambedkar's Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA). "We will contest in seats beyond minority-dominated pockets. We will unveil our social engineering model. There are a number of Marathas who want to contest (as AIMIM candidates)... we also have Brahmins who are eager to contest in Vidarbha," said Imtiaz Jaleel, AIMIM MP from Aurangabad and the party's Maharashtra unit president.