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This is an archive article published on March 19, 2024
Ex-Union minister MAA Fatmi quits JD(U), may return to RJD as its Madhubani Lok Sabha candidate
MAA Fatmi, who joined JD(U) after RJD denied him a poll ticket in 2019, failed to get a seat of his choice for the Lok Sabha elections after Nitish Kumar’s party returned to the NDA
3 min read
Fatmi said since then he had been feeling uneasy and, finally, “to do justice to my own moral values, I gave up my party post and primary membership." (Facebook/ Md Ali Ashraf Fatmi)Former Union minister Mohammed Ali Ashraf Fatmi, who quit the JD(U) on Tuesday, is most likely to return to the RJD in a matter of few days. He could contest either the Darbhanga or Madhubani seats in Bihar as an RJD nominee.
A four-time Darbhanga MP (twice each from RJD and Janata Dal), Fatmi was Union minister of state for human resources development from the RJD between 2004 and 2009. His son Faraz Fatmi won the Keoti Assembly seat in Darbhanga in 2019 on an RJD ticket. Fatmi crossed over to the JD(U) in 2019. Faraz lost the 2020 Assembly polls as a JD(U) nominee to the RJD’s Lalit Yadav.
Fatmi, who had fancied chances of getting a JD(U) ticket either for Darbhanga or Madhubani, lost hope after Nitish Kumar switched over to the NDA in January. However, he waited till the NDA finalised seat-sharing to quit the JD (U). There was no way the BJP could have conceded its sitting seats, Darbhanga or Madhubani, to the ally.
Fatmi, however, cited Nitish’s crossing over to the NDA for his switchover. “To protest against immoral and unethical practices in politics, I am resigning from all party posts and also quitting the JD(U),” he wrote in his resignation letter to the party supremo.
While expressing shock at Nitish’s switchover, Fatmi could not explain why he took two months to quit the JD(U) and why he waited till the NDA seat-sharing announcement for his latest move. After all, he had joined the JD(U) when it had been very much a part of the NDA.
JD(U) spokesperson and MLC Neeraj Kumar said, “We are not at all surprised at Fatmi’s decision. He is thinking of a suitable seat to contest. He is offering a weak alibi now to quit the JD(U).”
An RJD leader said, “Going by his meeting with the RJD chief a month ago, we had sensed his return. Now that our senior leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui, who used to contest the Madhubani Lok Sabha seat, is nominated to the Legislative Council, Fatmi sees a bright chance of getting the RJD ticket for Madhubani. He could join us in a matter of a few days.”
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Fatmi, 67, has been an influential leader in the Mithilanchal region of Darbhanga and Madhubani, which has a sizeable Muslim population. Fatmi, like Siddiqui, had been seen as the RJD’s Muslim face for a long time, till the party denied the former a ticket for Darbhanga or Madhubani in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Fatmi’s likely return to the RJD could pit him against Madhubani BJP MP Ashok Yadav, who had won with the highest margin among Bihar MPs in the 2019 polls. Yadav is the son of veteran socialist leader and former MP Hukuldev Narayan Yadav.
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