Patna, Mar 13 (PTI) The Bihar unit of Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM is in favour of contesting more than a quarter of the state’s 40 Lok Sabha seats, a senior party leader said on Wednesday.
Talking to reporters in Kishanganj, AIMIM’s state unit president Akhtarul Iman said a list of 11 seats, where he believes the party was “strong”, has been sent to the central election committee for approval.
Iman, who had unsuccessfully contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from Kishanganj, and was backed by Owaisi for another run when the Hyderabad MP was in Bihar recently, also expressed disappointment over the “reluctance” of the INDIA bloc to make AIMIM a part of the “anti-BJP mahaaz (front)”.
“In the 2020 assembly polls in Bihar, the INDIA bloc had contested all the 20 seats where AIMIM had put up its candidates. Our MLAs were weaned away later. Still, we are not holding it against them and have identified only 11 Lok Sabha constituencies, where we have gained ground,” he said.
Notably, the AIMIM, which is often accused by parties opposed to BJP of being the “B team” of the saffron party, had won five seats in assembly polls but four of its MLAs joined the RJD two years later.
The party had contested the assembly polls in alliance with former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati’s BSP and RLSP of ex-Union Minister Upendra Kushwaha, who now heads Rashtriya Lok Morcha and is with BJP-led NDA.
Iman, who is now the lone MLA of the AIMIM, but has in the past been with the RJD as well as Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U), said the seats which the Bihar unit has identified include Purnea, Araria and Katihar, all of which share borders with Kishanganj and have a sizeable Muslim population.
Other seats include Ujiyarpur, represented by Union minister and former state BJP chief Nityanand Rai, Muzaffarpur and Darbhanga.
Besides, the party this time wants to contest four seats in south Bihar: Buxar, Gaya, Karakat and Bhagalpur.
Replying to a query, Iman said, “I am making no mention of Kishanganj because our party president has already made it clear that he wants me to contest the seat again. The Congress has been alleging that we want to cut into its votes. We cannot help it.” The Congress has been winning Kishanganj on the trot since 2009, including in 2014, when Iman had contested on a JD(U) ticket. Iman had finished third in the last couple of general elections.
In response to another query, Iman said, “The candidates’ names will be made public once the party leadership agrees to our proposal to contest the 11 seats. The high command will take a call on whether to go it alone or to forge an alliance with smaller parties.” PTI NAC ACD
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