AIMIM should stay away from Bihar polls, extend 'in-principle' support: RJD leader Manoj Jha

New Delhi: The AIMIM should stay away from elections in Bihar and extend "in-principle" support to the opposition's "Mahagatbandhan", Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MP Manoj Jha said on Friday.

The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) won five seats in the 2020 Bihar Assembly polls, but four of the party MLAs joined the RJD within two years.

AIMIM's Bihar unit president Akhtarul Iman, the lone MLA of the party in the state, wrote to RJD chief Lalu Prasad earlier this week, formally requesting for his party's inclusion in the grand alliance.

The Assembly polls are due in Bihar later this year.

Jha, however, said the AIMIM should extend "in-principle" support to the RJD and stay away from elections in Bihar.

"For everyone who is fighting against this right-wing dictatorship, politics of hatred, there are such moments in history when you have to try to strengthen the stream which emerges as the main opponent," he told PTI Videos.

"In the leadership of Tejashwi Yadav, the Mahagatbandhan has given a defined line against this politics of hatred. It would be better if you (AIMIM) stay away from elections and extend in-principle support, and pray that this politics of hatred ends in Bihar," the RJD leader said.

In a letter to Prasad dated July 2, which party leaders have shared on social media, Iman said the AIMIM's inclusion in Bihar's prototype of the INDIA opposition bloc "will prevent a split in secular votes".

The AIMIM contested the 2020 Bihar polls in an alliance with former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the now-defunct Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) headed by former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha, who is now in the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA).