New DelhiOctober 15, 2025 06:52 PM IST
First published on: Oct 15, 2025 at 06:52 PM IST
While the two leading coalitions in Bihar, the ruling NDA and the Mahagathbandhan, continue to hammer out their differences over seat-sharing ahead of the November Assembly polls, the Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM Wednesday forged an electoral alliance with Chandrashekhar Aazad’s Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) and Swami Prasad Maurya’s Apni Janata Party (AJP), looking to emerge as a “third front” in the state.
“The alliance has been formed to ensure justice for Dalits and deprived sections of society and will work against the politics of communalism and avsarvaad (opportunism),” said the AIMIM’s Bihar unit president Akhtarul Iman, adding that “20% Dalit population, 18% minorities and various OBC communities of Bihar have been neglected”.
The proposed “third front”, called the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), has also finalised its seat-sharing arrangement, under which the AIMIM will contest 35 seats while the ASP (Kanshi Ram) and the AJP would field their candidates from 25 and four seats respectively. “The alliance will decide if it will contest more seats,” sources said.
The AIMIM, which claims it had been “repeatedly ignored” by the RJD over its proposal to join the Mahagathbandhan to “keep the BJP out of power”, has already announced its candidates in five seats now.
The ASP (Kanshi Ram)’s Bihar unit chief Jauhar Azad echoed Iman’s views. “We will fight for the issues of deprived sections and will release the first list of candidates on Thursday,” he said, adding that Chandrashekhar Aazad, who is also the Nagina MP and Bhim Army chief, would launch his campaign in Bihar on October 22.
Both the AIMIM and the ASP (Kanshi Ram) had contested the 2020 Bihar Assembly polls as part of separate coalitions. While Owaisi’s party had aligned with Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (now Rashtriya Lok Morcha, which is part of the NDA), Aazad had then forged an alliance with Pappu Yadav’s Jan Adhikar Party (JAP), which has since merged with the Congress. While the AIMIM had won five seats of 20 it contested, the ASP (Kanshi Ram) had failed to win any of the 28 seats the party contested.
While the AIMIM had in 2020 got all five seats from the Seemanchal region — which comprises the districts of Araria, Purnia, Katihar and Kishanganj — it is now looking to expand into Mithilanchal and Magadh, with Owaisi addressing a rally in each of these regions during his three-day Bihar tour earlier this month.
The GDA has also pinned its hopes on Maurya, a prominent OBC leader from neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, to consolidate the backward groups’ support in its favour. Maurya, a former minister in the BSP and the BJP governments in Uttar Pradesh, joined the Samajwadi Party (SP) ahead of the 2022 Assembly polls. He resigned in 2024 and floated the AJP, alleging that SP chief Akhilesh Yadav had “defied socialist ideology” by performing puja at a party office.