Mumbai, Oct 17 (IANS): The All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) is likely to contest the ensuing November 20 bypolls to the prestigious Nanded Lok Sabha constituency opposite the Congress, a top leader indicated here on Thursday.

Maharashtra unit AIMIM President Imtiaz Jaleel told mediapersons that he was not averse to contesting from the erstwhile Congress bastion of Nanded for the LS by-elections.

"There is an election taking place… so why not?" Jaleel -- a former AIMIM MP from Aurangabad, said in reply to a question.

His reactions came soon after the Congress announced the name of an academician, Ravindra Vasantrao Chavan to make a bid for the Nanded LS bypolls.

Active in Congress student and youth party politics for several years, he is the son of the late sitting MP Vasantrao B. Chavan, who passed away after a brief illness on August 6 at a Hyderabad hospital.

When pointed out that the Congress would label AIMIM as 'the B-team of BJP', Jaleel laughed and said: "This is what we have been hearing for very long… But I am part of a political party."

In the 2024 LS polls, the late V.B. Chavan had defeated sitting Bharatiya Janata Party MP Prataprao Patil-Chikhalikar by over 59,000 votes though encountering a difficult electoral challenge.

After his demise, Congress President and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, as well as other senior central and state leaders had visited the Chavan family in Nanded to offer condolences.

Jaleel had created an upset in 2019 LS elections when he defeated the Aurangabad strongman and four-term MP Chandrakant Khaire of the (undivided) Shiv Sena, and is now with the Shiv Sena (UBT).

However, in 2024, ruling ally Shiv Sena's nominee Sandipanrao Bhumre trounced sitting MP Jaleel from the seat and strong contender SS (UBT)-INDIA bloc's Khaire in this town, world-famed for the Ajanta-Ellora Caves and other historical sites.