AIMIM gains as smaller parties fail to make a mark
Owaisi’ s party pulls off a surprise in Seemanchal, winning five seats to make a mark for itself in the state by upstaging several small parties with deeper roots.
The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), led by Asaduddin Owaisi, appears to have found a foothold in Bihar even as most other smaller parties in the fray, including the once significant Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) now led by Chirag Paswan, were unable to open their account on verdict day in the Bihar assembly elections.
The AIMIM won five seats — Baisi and Amnour in Purnia district, Bahadurganj and Kochadhaman in Kishanganj, and Jokihat in Araria district -- a performance that meant the party must shed its vote thief or spoilsport card, and emerge as a party with a not insignificant presence on the next assembly.
All five seats have a high Muslim population ranging between 50% and 70% of the electorate.
The party did not win a single seat in the 2015 elections, but grabbed one seat (Kishanganj) in a bypoll last year.
Its partner in the Grand Secular Democratic Front (GDSP), the Bahujan Samaj Party, was leading from Chainpur constituency in Kaimur.
The BSP, too, failed to open its account in 2015, when its candidates forfeited their deposits on 225 of the 228 seats they contested.
Other members of the GDSP, former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) and the Janwadi Party Socialist (JPS), did not feature on the leaderboard.
What is impressive is the AIMIM’s strike rate, having contested just 24 seats for its five wins, while the RLSP contested 104 seats and the BSP 80. AIMIM had got 1.25% of the total votes polled in the state so far.
“It’s a great moment for us as people of Bihar have honoured us with so many votes. Our leaders & workers have put a lot of efforts into strengthening our party in Bihar. We will try our best to fulfil the promises made by us,” Owaisi, a four-time member of Parliament from Hyderabad since 2014, told news agency ANI.
The Congress, meanwhile, dubbed the AIMIM the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) “B-team” and accused it of colluding with the party.
Congress spokesperson Rajesh Rathore admitted the AIMIM snatched key seats in the Seemanchal region from the Congress. “Had it not contested, some of the seats would have come to us,” he said. “It’s a test for the AIMIM now as it has to decide which side it will be, as it may have an important role to play in government formation, with the contest being close.”
It may not come to that with the National Democratic Alliance securing a slender majority, winning or leading 124 seats in the 243-member assembly, as per results declared on the Election Commission website at 11pm.
But AIMIM national spokesperson Asim Waqar told PTI in New Delhi that there was no question of supporting the NDA in any case, asserting that his party has always stood against the BJP.
Experts said the performance may have been driven by aggressive voting by the Muslim migrants. “The AIMIM has done extremely well in areas having Muslim majority, with a sizeable migrant population. The voters believe that the AIMIM will take up their cause more aggressively and proactively than the RJD or the Congress, which would have simply consolidated their position,” said Prof Arvind Aditya Raj of the political science department at Patna’s College of Commerce, Arts and Science.
