In Bihar, Owaisi accuses Nitish of helping BJP, blasts RJD
he AIMIM chief raised the issue of the Seemanchal Development Council (SDC) and said his party would continue to fight for a civil airport in Purnia, road connectivity and flood mitigation in the region
AIMIM (All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen) president and Asaduudin Owaisi on Saturday accused Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar of strengthening the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and attacked the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) for “luring away” his party MLAs.
The Hyderabad MP is on a two-day visit to Bihar’s northeastern Seemanchal region.
“History will remember you for strengthening BJP,” Owaisi said while addressing his party workers at Purnia’s Baisi.
“When Gujarat was burning, Nitish Kumar was the railway minister,” he said, in an apparent reference to the 2002 Gujarat riots.
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Alluding to Kumar’s comment that AIMIM was a party just for Muslims, Owaisi said, “Nitish Kumar should look within himself. He has so far not come out of the shadows of Kurmi and Koeri castes in Bihar.”
Attacking the Rashtra Janata Dal (RJD), Owaisi said, “Those elected by the people were defeated by the power of money used by the RJD leader,” he said.
In the 2020 assembly polls, AIMIM won five seats in Seemanchal, an impoverished region that has a high concentration of Muslims. Last year, four of them switched to RJD.
Attacking the Bihar government and the centre on the situation of the underdeveloped region, Owaisi said, “Neither (Union home minister) Amit Shah nor Nitish Kumar raised the issues of Seemanchal’s development in their public meetings held in Purnia.”
The AIMIM chief raised the issue of the Seemanchal Development Council (SDC) and said his party would continue to fight for a civil airport in Purnia, road connectivity and flood mitigation in the region.
Muslims constitute 30-70% of the population in different areas of Seemanchal, which comprises four districts of Purnia, Katihar, Araria and Kishanganj. The region has 24 assembly and four Lok Sabha seats, with 10 Muslim MLAs and one Muslim MP.
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Responding to Owaisi, local RJD leader Neeraj Kumar Yadav, a former MLA from Barari seat in Katihar district, said, “We won’t allow the AIMIM agenda to take roots in Seemanchal where Muslims and Hindus live in togetherness. We have started our campaign to blunt Owaisi’s edge by placing reality before the people, especially in places where Muslims are in substantial numbers.”
Any gain by AIMIM in Seemanchal is bad news for RJD, which heavily relies on the support of Muslims and Yadavs electorally.