NEW DELHI: Setting the stage for a multicornered contest, the Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM has announced 25 candidates on Sunday. With this, the political landscape, already marked by fragmented Opposition and regional power struggles, is expected to witness more intense contests across constituencies.
The list, which includes AIMIM state president Akhtarul Iman, who is also the party’s lone MLA in Bihar, was shared on X. “We are happy to announce the list of AIMIM candidates for the upcoming Bihar elections. The candidates were finalised by AIMIM’s Bihar unit in consultation with the party’s national leadership. Inshallah, we will be a voice of justice for Bihar’s weakest and most neglected,” the party’s tweet read.
Iman has been renominated from Amour, where 2020 runnerup Saba Zafar was replaced by Sabir Ali, a former Rajya Sabha MP who was expelled from the party 11 years ago by CM Nitish Kumar’s JD(U). Most of the seats contested by the party fall in the Seemanchal region, which has a high percentage of the Musl im population.
The AIMIM’s entry adds to the worries for the Opposition alliance, which is grappling with internal conflicts and disarray over seat-sharing.
A senior Congress leader told this paper that Owaisi’s party will divide the minority vote bank in constituencies where the Opposition parties are heavily reliant on it. The leader points out that the grand alliance will face threats in constituencies like Bahadurganj, Kishanganj, Thakurganj and Araria, which have a significant Muslim population.
The Congress had won the Kishanganj seat in the 2020 Assembly polls by a narrow margin of 1,381 votes. The party, however, secured the Araria seat with a convincing margin of around 47,000 votes, while AIMIM got 8,000 votes. Though Owaisi was keen on joining the INDIA bloc, he was spurned by the alliance
