All-India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi’s dream of denting the Muslim votebank in the Seemanchal region of Bihar and opening his party’s account in the state in the end remained just a pipe dream. As the dust settled on the Bihar Assembly polls, the AIMIM’s final tally was zero as it lost all the six seats which it had contested.
The party, widely termed by all during the run-up to the Assembly polls as a vote-cutter and also facing allegations of having been propped up by the BJP to cut into the crucial Muslim votebank of the Grand Alliance, was left much chastened after the dismal show in Bihar.
According to political observers, the AIMIM initially announced its intention of contesting all 25 seats in the Seemanchal region of Bihar. However, after it apparently failed to find candidates, the Hyderabad-based party decided to contest only six seats in the region.
Voters in the state, especially in small towns and villages, were either dismissive of the AIMIM (calling the party a vote-katwa or a vote-cutter) or were not even aware of its candidates as many of them did not even figure in the race in the constituencies where they contested.
The party’s candidate in Kishanganj’s Kochadhaman was incidentally also the state president of the AIMIM, Akhtarul Iman. A three-time MLA, he had earlier been both in the RJD and the JD(U). He contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections on a JD(U) ticket from Kishanganj but had apparently withdrawn his candidature at the last moment in favour of the Congress candidate, who was the eventual winner.
Meanwhile, after the results came out, Mr Owaisi said the NDA’s loss in Bihar was a “personal defeat” for Prime Minister Narendra Modi even as he hoped his party, which made its debut in the state, would be in a “stronger position” to do well electorally in the future.
