Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) won five of the 21 seats it contested in Bihar assembly elections. The Congress which termed AIMIM a “vote cutter” and BJP’s “B-team” blamed him for its poor performance in Bihar.
The Hyderabad MP, however, accused Congress of blaming their own failure on his party’s success. Owaisi, whose party’s five seats came Muslim-dominated Seemanchal region, hinted that the community were disenchanted with the Congress and the RJD, part of the Mahagathbandhan, for they did not talk about the Citizenship Amendment Act or the National Register of Citizens during the campaign.
“In this whole election campaign, the gathbandhan political parties did not talk about CAA, NPR or NRC. There was complete silence. But why? No, no, if we talk about it will give BJP an advantage. So now what happened? The results are there in front of you,” Owaisi said in an interview to the Indian Express.
In the Bihar elections, the RJD-led Mahagathbandhan, ended with 110 seats while the NDA won 125 in the 243-member assembly.
The AIMIM could not win any seats in 2015 assembly polls or the 2019 Lok Sabha elections but won an assembly seat in a by-poll later. The party contested 2020 assembly polls as part of a six-party alliance led by Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Samata Party. It fielded 16 of its 21 candidates in Seemanchal region.
“You say you give votes…don’t support Owaisi who is an outsider…He is B team, C team, you don’t talk about issues which pertain to people and you assume that whatever narrative you set will work everywhere. And people will blindly follow and vote for you,” Owaisi said in the interview targeting the Congress party.
“Congress is still shouting 'vote katwa' just as before. They've already started blaming their own failure on AIMIM’s success in Bihar elections. We contested 20 seats, won 5, MGB won 9 & NDA, 6. On seats where NDA won, the victory margin was higher than our votes. NDA would have won regardless of our candidate. In other words, MGB failed to defeat NDA on these seats,” Owaisi said in a tweet.
Muslims comprising 17 percent of Bihar's population were also disenchanted with ‘secular’ parties because of poor representation in the 243-member house, he said.
“Why did Abdul Bari Siddiqui, the tallest leader of RJD, lose in Keoti in Darbhanga district? He lost to a Yadav candidate from NDA. How did he lose? And then how do you explain that in the 2015 assembly you had 57 Yadav MLAs in the whole assembly whereas their population was only 14%. And whereas 17 percent of the Muslim population and only 24 can win. And this time only 18. RJD is only six. How did that number of the RJD come down? This is all bogus politics which they are doing,” Owaisi said
“What does that speak about our participative form of democracy? You don’t have a Muslim voice, you don’t want to nurture a Muslim voice…you assume that we are only voting machines,” he said.
About his future plans, Owaisi said he would not fight upcoming elections in Kerala and Assam but speak to his party’s Bengal unit to decide whether or not to contest upcoming assembly polls in West Bengal.
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