The Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM on Sunday announced its first list of 25 candidates for the Bihar Assembly elections, including two leaders from the Hindu community.
“We are happy to announce the list of AIMIM candidates for 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 said in a post on X.
The party’s lone MLA and state unit chief, Akhtarul Alam, has been renominated from Amour, while former Bihar minister and ex-Begusarai MP Munazir Hasan will contest from Munger. Former four-time MLA Tauseef Alam will fight from the Bahadurganj seat. The two non-Muslim candidates are Rana Ranjit Singh, son of former MP Sitaram Singh, from Dhaka, and Manoj Kumar Das from Sikandra. Ranjit Singh recently hit the headlines after he offered a Tricolour pagdi (headgear) to Owaisi.
In 2020, the AIMIM did not field candidates from Dhaka and Sikandra as its then ally, the Upendra Kushwaha-led Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP, now Rashtriya Lok Morcha) had put up nominees in the two seats. The BJP had won Dhaka while the Sikandra seat was won by its NDA partner, the Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) of Jitan Ram Manjhi.
Bihar votes in two phases on November 6 and 11. The last date to file nomination for the second phase is Monday.
In a reflection of its intent to expand beyond the Seemanchal region — comprising the districts of Kishanganj, Purnia, Araria and Katihar — the party has also fielded candidates from Darbhanga, Siwan, Munger and Bhagalpur.
“Our party has fielded candidates, most of whom have a political background, from regions across the state. Two Hindu candidates will contest from Dhaka and Sikandra,” AIMIM spokesperson Mohammed Adil Hasan told The Indian Express.
The other seats for which the AIMIM has announced candidates include Narkatia, Gopalganj, Jokihat, Thakurganj, Kishanganj, Baisi, Sherghati, Nathnagar, Siwan, Keoti, Jale, Nawada, Madhubani, Darbhanga Gramin, Gaurbouram, Kasba, Araria, Bafari and Kochadhaman.
In the 2020 Assembly polls, the AIMIM had contested 20 seats and won five — all from the Seemanchal region. However, four of its MLAs defected to the RJD in 2022.
This time, the AIMIM is likely to face a challenge from Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj, which has so far fielded 21 Muslim candidates.
Last week, following repeated snubs by the RJD over its offer to join the Mahagathbandhan, the AIMIM announced a tie-up with the Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) of Chandrashekhar Aazad and Swami Prasad Maurya’s Apni Janta Party (AJP). As per the seat-sharing agreement of the coalition, called the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), the AIMIM will contest 35 seats, while the ASP (Kanshi Ram) and AJP will contest 25 and four seats respectively.