Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM announces list of 25 candidates for Bihar elections

Asaduddin Owaisi. File Pic

The Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM, which had vowed to contest "100 seats" in the Bihar polls upon being spurned by the INDIA bloc, on Sunday announced 25 candidates, including two non-Muslims.

The list, which includes the name of Akhtarul Iman, the state president of AIMIM and its lone MLA in Bihar, was shared by the party on X.

"We are happy to announce the list of AIMIM candidates for the upcoming Bihar elections. The candidates were finalised by AIMIM's Bihar Unit, in consultation with the party's national leadership. Inshallah, we will be a voice of justice for Bihar's weakest and most neglected," said the post on X.

Iman has been renominated from Amour, where Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U) has replaced 2020 runner-up Saba Zafar with Sabir Ali, a former Rajya Sabha MP who was expelled from the party 11 years ago.

Most of the seats contested by the party fall, predictably, in the Seemanchal region, the state's flood-prone north-eastern part, which has a high percentage of Muslim population.

Besides, the party has fielded Manoj Kumar Das from Sikandra, a reserved seat in the south-central district of Gaya. Sitting MLA Prafull Kumar Manjhi, who belongs to Union Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM), is aiming at a second consecutive term from the seat.

In the Dhaka constituency of East Champaran, which borders Nepal, the party has given a ticket to Rana Ranjeet Singh, brother of former minister and BJP MLA Rana Randheer Singh, who is aiming at a hat-trick from the adjoining Madhuban.

The BJP candidate from Dhaka is sitting MLA Pawan Kumar Jaiswal.

In the last assembly polls, the party had contested 19 seats, winning five of those, but four of its MLAs later joined the RJD.

The party had written letters to RJD president Lalu Prasad and his son and heir apparent Tejashwi Yadav, stating that it was willing to contest the polls as an INDIA bloc constituent this time. The missives elicited no response.

Earlier, on October 17, the Congress party released its first list of 48 candidates for the upcoming Bihar Legislative Assembly elections.

Out of the total 48 candidates, 24 will be contested in the first phase of elections and 24 in the second phase. The party said that the remaining names will be announced in due course.

The Mahagathbandhan, comprising the RJD and Congress, was unable to finalise a seat-sharing pact for the first phase of the Bihar polls, as the nomination process concluded on Friday. The constituents of Mahagathbandhan are engaged in a "friendly fight" on some seats.

In these elections, the NDA will be up against the INDIA bloc, led by Tejashwi Yadav of the RJD, the Congress, the CPI (ML) led by Deepankar Bhattacharya, the CPI, the CPM, and Mukesh Sahani's Vikasheel Insaan Party (VIP). This time, Bihar will also see the entry of a new player in the form of Prashant Kishor and his party Jan Suraaj.

(With inputs from PTI)