Waseem Khan for BeyondHeadlines
After creating buzz by inviting a cobbler and a powerloom labourer to open party office in Malegaon, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate in Dhule Ansari Nihal Ahmed on Tuesday embarked on a 50-km paidal march to file his nomination papers.
Dhule Lok Sabha seat is among the few parliamentary constituencies in the country which spans in Nashik and Dhule two districts. It has the election commission main office in Dhule – the district headquarters located 50-kms to Malegaon.
The AAP candidate Ansari Nihal Ahmed, who is a native of Malegaon, started his 50-km long march to Dhule with hundreds of his supporters 1 April afternoon.
Giving reasons why he has decided to walk for filing the nomination papers, he said the march is an attempt to reach out to ‘Aam Aadmi’ who hardly get chance to meet their representatives, and hence are unaware whom they are voting in the election.
“Contestants from other political parties travel in luxury cars and eat lavish foods. They spent lot of money to garner support and hire people for their rallies, and do not care to meet common people even while seeking vote. Our paidal-march is to protest the huge money used in electioneering and to challenge the ‘luxury culture”, Faizee said.
On his two and a half day march from Malegaon to Dhule, Nihal Ansari will be crossing through more than two dozen villages and intend to meet over 50,000 people.
Wearing ‘Main Hun Aam Aadmi’ caps and waving the party flags, Nihal Ansari was seen greeting people with folded hands and asking them to support him in his mission even as the volunteers accompanying him distributed the party trade-mark caps and handbills.
Nihal Ansari will reach Dhule on April 03 and file his nomination after walking for about two days. In between he will be halting at Daregaon, Zodge, Arvi and Laling before entering Dhule.
Dhule-Malegaon is witnessing a fierce electoral battle between AAP candidate Nihal Ansari, Congress’s Amrish Patel and BJP’s Dr Subhash Bhamre.
The constituency has over 16 lakh voters spanning in six assembly constituencies. It has over 07 lakh Maratha and some 4.35 lakh Muslim voters besides a good number of people of Mali samaj and other backward classes.
The constituency was reserved till 2008 for SCs/STs and was made open for delimitation.
