CM, other leaders misleading and cheating Muslims: Bihar AIMIM chief

Iman said that people were expecting the CM would speak something special for them, but he continued to talk about the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and displayed BJP phobia to the people

A day after the grand alliance’s Purnia rally on Saturday, Bihar All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president Akhtarul Iman accused the mahagathbandhan leaders of cheating and misleading the people of Seemanchal, particularly Muslims. He also termed chief minister Nitish Kumar-led rally a ‘flop show’.

Bihar AIMIM president Akhtarul Iman (ANI Photo)

Iman said that people were expecting the CM would speak something special for them, but he continued to talk about the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and displayed BJP phobia to the people.

He added that neither the chief minister nor the other leaders even once raised the issue of the AMU (Aligarh Muslim University) branch in Kishanganj, which is a necessity for education.

“Those who were sitting on the lap of the BJP till yesterday are today trying to frighten us (Muslims) by the name of BJP and RSS [Rashtriya Swayamseva Sangh],” he said and announced that his party would go to the people rather more aggressively in coming elections with the real issues such as “backwardness, floods, illiteracy and poverty.”

Kumar in his speech while addressing a mahagathbandhan rally in Purnia on Saturday launched a veiled attack on AIMIM (without naming the party), headed by Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, saying it was an extension of BJP.

The CM in his speech also raised the issue of the alleged BJP’s hidden agenda to give UT status to Seemanchal, however, in September last year union home minister Amit Shah in his visit to Seemanchal termed it a ‘rumour.’

Besides, the CM cautioned the Muslims against the nefarious plan of communal forces to divide them.

Seemanchal consists of four districts having a larger number of Muslim populations in Araria (32%), Kishanganj (67%), Katihar (38%) and Purnia (30%). It has 11 Muslim MLAs out of the total 24 assembly segments, and one Muslim MP out of four Parliamentary seats.

In 2020, Muslim MLAs won Bahadurganj, Kochadhaman, Baisi, Amour, and Jokihat on the AIMIM ticket; Kishanganj, Kasba, Kadwa and Araria on the Congress ticket and Thakurganj and Balrampur, one each from the Rashtriya Janata Dal and Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation. However, in 2022, four out of five AIMIM MLAs joined the RJD.

“AIMIM will go with hammer and tongs on these 11 seats and our aim is to extend our tally from five to at least ten in 2025,” an AIMIM insider said adding, “We have made our base on these seats.”

In the 2020 assembly polls, AIMIM fielded 24 candidates in Bihar and five of them all in Seemanchal were elected.