Why getting Pasmanda Muslim leader Ali Ansari is a big win for Congress as it bolsters ranks ahead of Bihar polls

Besides Ansari and Manjhi, social worker Manoj Prajapati; former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Nishant Anand; Jagdish Prasad, a doctor; former BJP leader Nighat Abbas; and author-journalist Frank Huzur also joined the party in the presence of All India Congress Committee (AICC) media and publicity department head Pawan Khera and Bihar Congress chief Akhilesh Prasad Singh.

Ansari’s move did not come as a surprise to many as he attended the Samvidhan Suraksha Sammelan in Patna on January 18. The Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, also attended the event.

With Ansari in its ranks, the Congress’s attempts to counter the BJP’s Pasmanda outreach will receive a boost. The BJP made the outreach to the community one of its main targets in the run-up to last year’s Lok Sabha elections.

Despite the presence of Muslim leaders such as Kadwa MLA Shakil Ahmad Khan and former Bihar Congress working president Kaukab Qadri in its ranks, the Congress, which is looking to regain its foothold across the country, especially Bihar, was keen on inducting Ansari as it provides the party with another big face to reach out to Muslims, especially those within the minority community who are deprived.

In the last few years, the 71-year-old AIPMM chief has been credited with raising the concerns of Pasmandas and bringing them into national focus. Pasmanda means “one left behind” and has become an umbrella identity used by backward, Dalit, and tribal Muslims to push back against discrimination within the community. Pasmands comprise 85% of Muslims in Bihar, a statistic reflected in the state’s caste survey. Ansari set up the AIPMM in 1998 to take up the Pasmanda cause.

Ansari, after joining the Congress, said he had written several letters to Modi on mob lynching and other cases of discrimination. He said he had travelled extensively across several states, including Bihar, in the past 25 years to hold discussions on the Pasmanda cause.

Ansari, who is from Buxar, started his career as a journalist and extensively covered the Emergency and the tenure of former Chief Minister Karpoori Thakur. He forayed into politics with Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and also served as a member of the Bihar State Backward Classes Commission between 2000 and 2003, when Rabri Devi was helming the state.

After Nitish Kumar assumed power in November 2005, Ansari drifted towards the JD(U), which saw the Pasmanda leader as a prominent OBC/EBC Muslim voice and nominated him to the Rajya Sabha twice between 2006 and 2017. But he fell out with Nitish after the latter jumped ship and returned to the NDA fold in July 2017. He joined hands with former Union Minister Sharad Yadav who too had fallen out with Nitish and floated the Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) in 2018. As Sharad Yadav receded to the margins of state and national politics, Ansari was left with little choice politically as both leaders were disqualified from the Upper House for their rebellion.

“I was a part of the NDA when Nitish called the shots. But the NDA after 2014 is a different unit and Nitish is no longer the same leader,” he said.

Shakil Ahmad Khan welcomed Ansari to the Congress. “Him joining the party is in line with Rahul Gandhi’s commitment to give fair representation to every section of society,” said the MLA.