The AIMIM, which has been spurned by the INDIA bloc in Bihar, on Saturday said it was planning to contest around a 100 seats in the upcoming state assembly polls, five times the number it had fought in the last elections.
The party, headed by Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, claimed that it was aiming to build a “third alternative” in Bihar, where politics has, for years, been all about the BJP-led NDA and the Congress-RJD combine. AIMIM’s state president Akhtarul Iman said, “Our plan is to contest 100 seats. Both the NDA and the Mahagathbandhan [the name by which the INDIA bloc is known in Bihar] will be forced to realise our presence.”
“It is now common knowledge that I wrote to [RJD president] Lalu Prasad and Tejashwi Yadav, expressing willingness for a tie-up. But no response came. Now, we must do all that we can to expand our footprints. Yes, we are also in talks with like-minded parties to explore the possibility of a third front. It will all be clear in a few days,” said the AIMIM leader.
The elections to the 243-member Bihar assembly will be held on November 6 and 11, and the counting of votes will take place on November 14. The AIMIM had contested the 2020 assembly polls in alliance with former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati’s BSP and the now-abolished Rashtriya Lok Samata Party.
According to political observers, the AIMIM sees a catchment area in Bihar, where Muslims are more than 17 per cent of the total population but have never got a proportionate representation in the state legislature.
BJP chief: Big news on Sunday
Bihar BJP chief Dilip Jaiswal on Saturday said, “Everything is fine in the NDA,” dismissing speculations about rumblings of discontent among the party. “Seat-sharing arrangements and the list of candidates will soon be decided by the party’s central leadership, which will make important announcements related to seat sharing and tickets at 11 am on Sunday,” he said.
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