Mahagathbandhan wary of AIMIM foray into Seemanchal as Owaisi ups the ante

Owaisi downplayed the charges levelled by the Mahagathbandhan that as the BJP’s “B team” the AIMIM was playing the role of “votekatwa (vote-cutter)” and “spoiler” for the ruling camp. He said he would not bother about such allegations as his sole objective was to “keep working for neglected and backward areas of Seemanchal”.

Owaisi had received a big jolt in June 2022 when four of Bihar’s five AIMIM MLAs defected to the RJD. Currently, the AIMIM’s lone MLA is Akhtarul Imam, who is also the party’s state chief.

With the Mahagathbandhan alleging a “BJP plot in using Owaisi” to defeat its candidate in the recent Gopalganj Assembly seat bypoll, the AIMIM chief chose to revisit his core support base in Seemanchal, sources said. While keeping his guns trained on the BJP and the RSS during his visit, Owaisi also took on Nitish and Deputy CM and RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav. “I want to know why Seemanchal does not have a good number of bridges, schools and degree colleges like rest of Bihar. Why Seemanchal Development Board has not been set up yet?” he asked.

“Just saying that Nitish and Tejashwi love Muslims is not good enough. We are tired of this. RJD and JD (U) have been ruling Bihar for so many years now but they have not done enough. If people of Baisi is still demanding a bridge, it means that the present CM has not even done basic works for this area,” Owaisi charged.

Seeking to invoke Seemanchal pride, he said: “People say Nitish Kumar is in PM race. But I would say that route to Delhi should go through Seemanchal. It was a mistake to contest fewer number of seats in the last Assembly polls. We would try to contest at least 50 seats in the 2025 Assembly polls. And unlike the last general elections in 2019 when we contested from just Kishanganj Lok Sabha seat (unsuccessfully), we would contest more Lok Sabha seats in the 2024 elections.”

A Purnia resident and journalist said: “It would be wrong to write off Owaisi here. He has carefully cultivated a constituency by taking up sensitive issues like CAA and NRC. It has gone down to villages. Plus, unlike other parties he talks of Seemanchal’s development.”

The RJD and Congress, which in the company of Nitish, would be a formidable electoral force in Seemanchal, have been wary of the Owaisi factor, especially given the point that it would have a keen contest with the BJP. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the AIMIM emerged as the second runner-up in Kishanganj, giving some anxious moments to the Congress that eventually won the seat.

At present, the Mahagathbandhan has only the Kishanganj parliamentary seat from the region, as the NDA (with Nitish being on board then) had put up its best-ever performance in Bihar in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, winning 39 of 40 Bihar seats.

The political significance of Seemanchal could be gauged by the point that Union Home Minister Amit Shah had kicked off the BJP’s Bihar campaign for the 2024 polls from Purnia in September last year. It was the first rally held by the saffron party in the state a month after after Nitish walked out of the NDA while cutting off the JD(U)’s ties with the BJP.

On February 25 this year, the Mahagathbandhan held a joint rally in Purnia that was addressed by Nitish, Lalu (in virtual mode) and Tejashwi.

Both camps are aware of the importance of Owaisi, with the AIMIM’s performance likely to have a bearing on their fates in the region in the coming polls.