Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:
The rise of the AIMIM party began in the 2014 assembly elections. In the 2015 municipal elections, the party won 24 seats, raising its flag high in the city. Since then, party workers have devoted themselves fully during subsequent Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections. Now, when it was time for municipal corporation tickets, loyal workers allege that the party bypassed them and gave nominations to as many as 14 parachute candidates who had not worked in building the organisation.
The last day (on December 30), for filing nominations, the AIMIM party announced a large list of candidates. Many were shocked to see the list. Those who had not been seen working to strengthen the party organisation were included. This caused strong dissatisfaction among loyal party workers. The most striking point: out of the 24 sitting corporators, only four received tickets, while the political careers of the remaining 20 former corporators seemed to have ended. Some of them openly rebelled against the party; a few even received Congress tickets at the last moment.
Workers took risks for whom
Workers had even filed cases against themselves for party leaders, and some had cases filed for property damage during protests. They had also confronted opponents for the party. The sudden nomination of a parachute candidate over the child of an opponent further intensified the anger among workers.
Party leaders will go home to persuade
Senior party leaders are expected to visit the homes of disgruntled corporators to pacify them. This same pattern was followed in previous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections: after the elections, the disgruntled workers were brought back into the fold. However, party workers now feel that the chances of this pattern succeeding this time are low.