PATNA: All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi is scheduled to kickstart his party’s election campaign from Bihar’s Muslim dominated Seemanchal region on May 3. He will address a rally under the Bahadurganj assembly constituency in Kishanganj district.
Bihar chief of AIMIM Akhtarul Iman said on Friday that Owaisi will address rallies in Kishanganj, and other Muslim dominated regions of Seemanchal during his two-day visit to the state. The party has already announced that it would contest the upcoming assembly polls with a focus on the Seemanchal region.
AIMIM has already declared the name of the candidate to contest the upcoming election from the Bahadurganj assembly constituency. Seemanchal region comprises Kishanganj, Araria, Katihar and Purnea districts.
In the 2020 assembly elections, AIMIM had won five out of 18 seats it contested. All the seats where the party registered its victory for the first time in Bihar were in the Seemanchal region alone. However, four of its MLAs later joined Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) led by Lalu Prasad Yadav.
A day earlier, Owaisi said in Hyderabad that the people of Bihar would teach the political party a lesson, which stole his legislators.
“The people of Seemanchal will teach a lesson to those who have stolen our MLAs,” Owaisi said, adding that the party’s candidates would be more successful in the 2025 assembly election than in the previous assembly election held in 2020. After four MLAs defected to RJD, AIMIM was left with only one MLA in the 243-member Bihar assembly.
Iman said that the party would rebuild its support base and also reclaim its lost ground in the upcoming assembly polls. “Upcoming assembly polls is significant for the party. We will have to improve our performance in the state, which has a sizable Muslim population. Apart from Seemanchal, the party aimed at contesting election from other seats.
Muslims constitute nearly 18 per cent of the state’s population. Kishanganj has a 67 per cent Muslim population, where Owaisi’s party performed well in the 2020 assembly election. The party has also advocated for hike in reservation cap for Other Backwards Classes (OBCs).
The political atmosphere in the Seemanchal region has surcharged following Owaisi’s announcement to contest the upcoming state assembly elections due in October-November this year.