In Maharashtra's political landscape, party-hopping has become a significant trend, with uncertainty surrounding which leaders will join which parties. Just five days ago, Anis Ahmed, a former Congress leader, left the party to join the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi. Upon joining, he was granted candidacy and received the party's AB form. However, he did not submit the form until the last moment.
Anis Ahmed joined the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi on October 28 in the presence of Prakash Ambedkar. Now, only five days later, he is set to rejoin Congress, this time alongside Congress in-charge Ramesh Chennithala. Ahmed has previously served as a minister in Congress. He stated, "I have been working for the Congress for the last 44 years; I did not leave the party. I brought in the AB form of another party while I was still in Congress. Due to some technical reasons, I couldn't submit my application on time. I was upset for a while. I brought in the form of another party, but I respect Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. Sonia Gandhi is my godmother. I did not resign from Congress; I had brought the AB form of Vanchit while still in Congress."
He further explained his situation: "I was on my way to fill out the form but was delayed by just one minute. When I arrived at the district collector's office to submit the application, the door was closed in front of me. Perhaps something better is written in my fate. Tomorrow, perhaps Vanchit will help Congress form the government. We are ready to take Prakash Ambedkar with us; he does not want to come with us. When a person gets angry, they can do anything. After my anger cooled down in 24 hours, I returned to Congress. Congress has given me everything."
The underlying discontent stems from Ahmed's frustration over the Congress party's decision regarding candidacy. He had sought a ticket for the Central Nagpur constituency, but the party chose to nominate Banti Shelke, the All India Youth Congress General Secretary, who lost the last election by just 4,000 votes. This decision upset Ahmed, who expressed his frustration that Congress did not field a single Muslim candidate in Eastern Vidarbha, questioning whether Muslims were only supposed to vote for Congress. Following this, he joined the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi in Mumbai at Rajghat, alongside Vanchit leader Advocate Prakash Ambedkar. Anis Ahmed has previously represented Central Nagpur as an MLA twice.