In an unpleasant ruckus witnessed in the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), corporator of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) Sayed Mateen was badly assaulted by a group of BJP corporators on Friday, after he opposed a resolution moved by their party mourning former Prime Minister AB Vajpayee's demise, at an AMC's special general meeting.
After the incident, some “20 to 25” supporters of Mateen retaliated, by indulging in stone throwing outside the AMC headquarters, damaging BJP’s organisational secretary Bhaurao Deshmukh’s vehicle with stones and lathis and beating up car driver Vilas Kashinath Korhale.
The video clip of the AMC incident, which went viral across the state, showed BJP corporators – identified as Pramod Rathod, Dilip Thorat, Madhuri Advant, Rameshwar Badhave and Raja Wankhede – assaulted Mateen by turns. The BJP corporators kept thrashing Mateen till the policemen on duty escorted him out of the house.
Disapproving strongly Mateen’s decision to oppose the condolence resolution over Vajpayee’s death and also condemning the attack on his party’s corporator by BJP corporators, AIMIM leader and MlA from Aurangabad Syed Imtiaz Jaleel said: “Mateen opposed the condolence resolution at his individual level. Mateen had neither discussed the issue with the party leadership nor had he taken permission to oppose the resolution. Hence, the party does not support Mateen’s decision to oppose the resolution nor will it stand by him”.
Simultaneously, Jaleet came down heavily on the BJP corporators for the manner in which they assaulted Mateen after he opposed the condolence resolution on Vajpayee and said the “goonda gardi” resorted to them against the AIMIM corporator inside the AMC House reflected the mob lynching mentality of the ruling BJP.
Talking to media persons after meeting Aurangabad Police Commissioner Chiranjeev Prasad, Jaleel said:“While we disapprove of Mateen’s decision to oppose resolution on Vajpayee, no can approve of the “goonda gardi” indulged in by the BJP corporators who pounced on our corporator and assaulted him. The incident only reflected the mob-lynching psychology of the BJP and we have reason to believe that its corporators had hatched a conspiracy to mob lynch Mateen.
“We have told the Police Commissioner that if stringent action is not taken against the BJP corporators concerned on the basis of CCTV footage, this will escalate further in the future general meetings of the AMC,” Jaleel said.
A delegation of saffron alliance corporators, led by AMC's Mayor Nandkumar Ghodele of the Shiv Sena and deputy mayor Vijay Autade met the Aurgangabad Police Commissioner and demanded a case of treachery be booked against AIMIM corporator Mateen.
Earlier inside the AMC House, the BJP corporators had demanded that Mateen be suspended from the house permanently.
Trouble began inside the AMC house, after the Mayor allowed a condolence motion moved by the BJP corpoators led by Rahul Vaidya over Vajpayee’s demise at a special general meeting called to discuss a parallel water pipeline project. Initially, a documentary on the life of Vajpayee was screened inside the House.
later, during the discussion on condolence motion moved by the ruling Shiv Sena-BJP alliance over Vajpayee’s death, AIMIM corporator Sayed Mateen opposed the motion. This prompted the BJP corporators go surging towards Mateen and beating him for his refusal to support the motion mourning the passing away of former Prime Minister Vajpayee.
Meanwhile, Jaleel indicated that the AIMIM would initiate action against Mateen for his decision to oppose the condolence resolution on Vajpayee.
“This is the fourth occasion when Mateen has gone against the party and done something that embarrasses all of us. The AIMIM has 25 corporators in the AMC. Tell me why one corporator (Mateen) should oppose the condolence resolution, when all of our other 24 corporators supported the resolution. We have a strong reason to believe that Mateen is doing this at the behest of someone to weaken the party. The party may take some action in this regard," Jaleel said.
It may be recalled that on August 19, 2017, Mateen was one of the two AIMIM corporators who were suspended from the AMC for a day after they refused to stand up when the “Vande Mataram” was being recited, raised slogans and clashed with other corporators. Apart from Mateen, the other AIMIM corporator suspended from the AMC was Shaikh Jaffar.
During the ruckus that the AMC general meeting witnessed on that day, the saffron alliance corporators and AIAIM corporators clashed, they wrenched microphones and damaged fans and furniture in the House.
The clash had broken out after the AMC’s general meeting began with the recitation of “Vande Mataram”. When the national song was recited, the two AIMIM corporators had chosen to remain seated -- a conduct was vehemently objected to by the Sena and BJP corporators in the House.
The Sena-BJP had rushed towards the two AIMIM corporators who remained seated and shouted slogans like “Is desh me rehna hoga toh Vande Mataram bolna padega (you would have to say Vande Mataram if you want to live in this country)...” and “Bharat mata ki jai”. With let up in the situation, the Mayor had suspended AIMIM corporators Mateen and Jaffar for a day and adjourned the House for the day.
With 25 corporators, the AIMIM is the principal Opposition party in the AMC. In the 113-member House, Shiv Sena has a strength of 29 corporators, followed by AIMIM 25, BJP 22, Congress 8, NCP 3 and Independents-others 24.