Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM party purportedly did not submit proper documents for Maharashtra civic polls.
Highlights
- AIMIM erecognized for not submitting proper documents
- It won 11 of 81 seats in 2012 Nanded Municipal Corporation elections
- Shocked and surprised. Suspect political pressure: Asaduddin Owaisi
Hyderabad-based leader Asaduddin Owaisi's party MIM or the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen has been derecognized as a political party in Maharashtra and can no longer contest civic body elections in Mumbai.
Maharashtra's election commission says the MIM did not submit relevant documents for its registration.
"We issued several notices requesting them to submit income tax returns and their audit reports. But they did not submit them. That is why the party has been derecognized," a spokesperson of the committee told NDTV.
Besides MIM, 191 other political parties have also been derecognized.
Imtiaz Jaleel, the party's Aurangabad lawmaker, asserted that all relevant documents had been submitted. "This is simply shocking. We have submitted income tax returns for the past three years and all other relevant documents. We suspect there was political pressure," Mr Jaleel said.
The decision means MIM cannot contest local body elections in Maharashtra, including panchayat and civic body polls. Next year's Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections are crucial to the party's plans to expand its base in Maharashtra, especially after it won two seats in the 2014 assembly elections.
Mr Owaisi's party also won 11 seats in the Nanded municipal polls in 2012. However, MIM made its biggest impression in Aurangabad last year after bagging 26 of the 54 seats it contested and emerging as the second largest party in the civic polls.