AIMIM seat announcement: Asaduddin Owaisi’s party All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) has released its first list for the Bihar Assembly elections, which has created a stir in the politics of the state. AIMIM on Saturday announced that it will field candidates on around 100 seats in the upcoming elections, which is five times more than the number of seats it contested last time. The party claims that it aims to create a strong third political alternative in Bihar, where till now politics has mainly centered around the BJP-NDA and Congress-RJD alliance (Grand Alliance).
Candidates will field on these 26 seats
The first list released by AIMIM includes seats in many important districts of the state, in which it will field its candidates. The list not only includes seats from the party’s traditional stronghold of Seemanchal, but also districts of Central Bihar like Darbhanga, Gaya and Motihari.
district assembly seats
Kishanganj Bahadurganj, Thakurganj, Kochadhaman and Kishanganj
Purnia Amour, Bayasi and Kasba
Katihar Balrampur, Pranpur, Manihari, Burari and Kadwa
Araria Jokihat and Araria
Gaya Sherghati and Bela
Motihari Dhaka and Narkatiya
nawada nawada city
Jamui Sikandra
Bhagalpur Bhagalpur and Nathnagar
Siwan Siwan
Darbhanga Jale, Kevati, Darbhanga Rural and Gaura Bauram.
Samastipur Kalyanpur
Sitamarhi Bajpatti
Madhubani Bisfi
Vaishali Mahua
Gopalganj Gopalganj
Bet on Tejashwi’s stronghold ‘Mahua’ also
The most surprising name in this list is that of Mahua assembly seat in Vaishali district, which has been the traditional seat of Tejashwi Yadav’s elder brother Tej Pratap Yadav. The decision to field AIMIM candidate on this seat is a direct challenge to the dominance of the Lalu family. This time, AIMIM has made it clear by staking four seats in Darbhanga and important districts like Bhagalpur, Siwan, Motihari that it does not want to limit itself to Seemanchal only.
Both NDA and Grand Alliance will ‘realize’
AIMIM’s Bihar State President Akhtarul Iman, while talking about his party’s strategy, has openly challenged both the NDA and the Grand Alliance. Akhtarul Iman said, “Our plan is to contest elections on 100 seats. Both the NDA and the Grand Alliance will feel our presence. In 2020, the Grand Alliance had blamed us for dividing secular votes, now this cannot happen.” He revealed that he had sent an alliance proposal to Lalu Prasad Yadav and Tejashwi Yadav, but did not receive any response. After this, AIMIM will now expand its regional base and is exploring the possibility of forming a third front with like-minded parties.
There will be a big impact on Muslim vote bank.
According to analysts, this expansion of AIMIM is a big threat to the Muslim vote bank in Bihar. The Muslim population in the state is about 17 percent. In the 2020 elections, AIMIM had won 5 seats in alliance with BSP and RLSP, which directly caused loss to the RJD-Congress-Left alliance.
However, in 2022, 4 AIMIM MLAs joined RJD, and now Akhtarul Iman is the only MLA of the party. This decision of fielding candidates on 100 seats can clearly create a big problem for the Grand Alliance, because NDA can get direct benefit from the distribution of votes on Muslim dominated seats. Elections will be held in Bihar in two phases on November 6 and 11, and this announcement by AIMIM has made the electoral equations even more unpredictable.