Vanchin Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) has fielded former corporator Afsar Khan from the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Lok Sabha constituency for the upcoming 2024 elections. Khan joined VBA in a function held in a city on Tuesday and later went to Akola to meet the VBA leader Adv. Prakash Ambedkar. His candidature was declared late at night.
AIMIM and VBA had an alliance during the Lok Sabha elections in 2019. The Dalit and OBC votes from VBA had helped the AIMIM Candidate Imtiaz Jaleel to win the elections. However, the alliance broke down as VBA alleged that AIMIM had not helped the VBA candidates during the following assembly elections due to which the VBA candidates suffered losses.
Hence, in order to counter AIMIM in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, the VBA has fielded Afsar Khan as its official candidate, the political experts opined.
Afsar Khan was elected as corporator on five occasions. He also shouldered the responsibility as the opposition leader in the Municipal Corporation for three times. It is being said that the VBA has found a Muslim face to counter the sitting MP in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar constituency.
