Patna, Agency
The Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM has announced its first list of 25 candidates—including two non-Muslims—for the upcoming Assembly elections in Bihar. The party had earlier declared its intention to contest 100 seats across the state.
Releasing the first list of 25 candidates on social media platform X, AIMIM state president Akhtarul Iman wrote, “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.”
Most of the seats the party is contesting are in the Seemanchal region, which has a high Muslim population, or in other Muslim-dominated constituencies. man has been renominated from Amour, where he will once again face Saba Zafar of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U), the runner-up in the 2020 Assembly elections.
Veteran politician Monazir Hasan has been nominated from Munger. A former MP from Begusarai, Hasan previously served as a minister in both the Rabri Devi and Nitish Kumar governments. After a brief stint with the BJP, he joined the Jan Suraaj Party but left after being denied a ticket from Munger.
The two non-Muslim candidates on the list are Manoj Kumar Das, who will contest from Sikandra in Gaya district, and Rana Ranjeet Singh, who has been fielded from Dhaka constituency in East Champaran.
Interestingly, Rana Ranjeet Singh is the brother of BJP MLA and former minister Rana Randheer Singh, who is aiming for a hat-trick from the neighbouring Madhuban constituency.
In the 2020 Assembly elections, the AIMIM contested 19 seats and won five. However, four of its MLAs later defected to the RJD.
Despite this setback, the party had sought to join the INDIA bloc ahead of the 2025 elections. Akhtarul Iman had written to RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, expressing the party’s desire to join the alliance to avoid splitting the “secular vote.”
Last month, Iman led a delegation of party workers, carrying posters and beating drums, to Lalu Yadav’s residence in Patna. However, he was denied a meeting with the RJD supremo.
After being snubbed by the RJD, the AIMIM has now aligned with Chandrashekhar Azad’s Azad Samaj Party and Swami Prasad Maurya’s Apni Janata Party to form a third front for the Bihar Assembly elections.
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