Gujarat Assembly polls: AIMIM names candidates for two seats in Ahmedabad`s Surat

On Twitter, Shahnawazkhan Pathan of Bapunagar in Ahmedabad and Abdul Bashir Shaikh of Limbayat in Surat announced their candidacies.

Ahmedabad: The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen on Sunday announced the names of two candidates for the upcoming Gujarat Assembly polls, taking the total number of seats covered by the Asaduddin Owaisi-led party to five. The announcement of the candidature of Shahnawazkhan Pathan from Bapunagar in Ahmedabad and Abdul Bashir Shaikh from Limbayat in Surat was made on the official Twitter handle of Owaisi. AIMIM will provide a strong independent political voice to the people of Gujarat, Owaisi further tweeted.

The party has fielded its state chief Sabir Kabliwala, a former Congress MLA, from Jamalpur-Khadia in Ahmedabad, its Dalit face Kaushika Parmar from Danilimda (SC) seat and Wasim Qureshi from Surat-East. In 2012, Kabliwala had contested from Jamalpur-Khadia, which has nearly 60 per cent Muslim population, as an Independent after he was a denied ticket by the Congress, which fielded Samirkahn Pathan. The division of votes may have led to Bharatiya Janata Party's Bhushan Bhatt winning. In 2017, Kabliwala had withdrawn his candidature in support of Congress candidate Imran Khedawala, who won the election.