'Will contest 100 seats, provide third alternative to Bihar', says AIMIM

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi.

Asaduddin Owaisi-led 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 the number it had fought in the last elections.

The party claimed that it was aiming to build a "third alternative" in Bihar, where politics has, for years, been all about the BJP-led NDA and the Congress-RJD combine.

Talking to PTI-Bhasha, the AIMIM's state president Akhtarul Iman said, "Our plan is to contest 100 seats. Both the NDA and the 'Mahagathbandhan' (the name by which the INDIA bloc is known in Bihar) will be forced to realise our presence." He also claimed that the 'Mahagathbandhan', which had in 2020 accused the AIMIM of splitting secular votes, can no longer do so.

"It is now common knowledge that I wrote to (RJD president) Lalu Prasad and Tejashwi Yadav, expressing willingness for a tie-up. But no response came.

"Now, we must do all that we can to expand our footprints. Yes, we are also in talks with like-minded parties to explore the possibility of a third front. It will all be clear in a few days", said the AIMIM leader.

The elections to the 243-member Bihar assembly will be held on November 6 and 11, and the counting of votes will take place on November 14.

The AIMIM had contested the 2020 assembly polls in alliance with former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati's BSP and the now-abolished Rashtriya Lok Samata Party, headed by ex-Union minister Upendra Kushwaha, who has since floated a new outfit, Rashtriya Lok Morcha, and joined the NDA.

In the last assembly polls, the AIMIM had won five seats and was understood to have damaged the RJD, Congress, and the Left combine in a number of other assembly segments.

In 2022, however, four MLAs of the AIMIM joined the RJD.

Iman, who had himself previously been in the RJD as well as the JD(U) headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, is now the lone legislator of the AIMIM.

According to political observers, the AIMIM sees a catchment area in Bihar, where Muslims are more than 17 per cent of the total population but have never got a proportionate representation in the state legislature.

Last month, Owaisi flew down to the Seemanchal region and toured, over a course of four days, districts like Kishanganj, Araria, Katihar and Purnea, which have a substantial population of the minority community.

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.

(With inputs from PTI)