The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), sidelined by the INDIA bloc in Bihar, on Saturday announced plans to contest about 100 seats in the upcoming state assembly elections, five times more than it fielded in 2020. The party, led by Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, said it aims to present a “third alternative” in Bihar, long dominated by the BJP-led NDA and the Congress-RJD alliance.
“Our plan is to contest 100 seats. Both the NDA and the Mahagathbandhan will be forced to recognise our presence,” AIMIM’s Bihar chief Akhtarul Iman told PTI-Bhasha. The Mahagathbandhan, which accused AIMIM of splitting secular votes in the last election, can “no longer do so,” he said.
Iman said he had written to RJD chief Lalu Prasad and his son Tejashwi Yadav seeking an alliance but received no response. “Now we must do everything possible to expand our base. We are also in talks with like-minded parties to explore forming a third front. Things will become clearer in the coming days,” he added.
Elections for the 243-member Bihar assembly are scheduled for November 6 and 11, with counting on November 14.
In 2020, AIMIM contested the polls in alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the then Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP), led by former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha. The party won five seats, mainly in the Seemanchal region, and was said to have cut into the vote share of the RJD-Congress-Left alliance in several constituencies.
However, in 2022, four of AIMIM’s MLAs switched sides to join the RJD, leaving Iman as the party’s lone representative in the Bihar assembly. A former member of both the RJD and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U), Iman said AIMIM continues to see a strong base in the state, particularly among Muslims, who make up more than 17 per cent of Bihar’s population but remain underrepresented in the legislature.
Owaisi has been active in the Muslim-majority Seemanchal region, visiting districts such as Kishanganj, Araria, Katihar and Purnea last month to strengthen the party’s presence. Although Owaisi has been charging the RJD, JD(U) and the Congress with apathy towards Muslims, the barrister-politician is, in turn, accused of being “a B team of the BJP”, which cuts into “secular votes” to help the saffron party.