Owaisi's party AIMIM writes to Lalu for alliance in Bihar

Patna: Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM has expressed its willingness to join the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar, which currently includes the RJD, Congress and Left parties, ahead of the upcoming assembly elections.

AIMIM’s Bihar state president Akhtarul Iman, the party’s lone MLA in the state, has written to RJD president Lalu Prasad, formally requesting inclusion in the grand alliance.

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

"This will ensure that the next government in the state is formed by the Mahagathbandhan", Iman has claimed, adding that his party had tried to join the coalition in the last Assembly polls, too, and this time he (Owaisi) has already expressed his wish to "leaders of the Congress and the Left over the phone".

In the 2020 assembly elections, the AIMIM contested in 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 NDA.

The AIMIM had won altogether five seats, all in Seemanchal region, which has a sizeable Muslim population, and is said to have cut into the votes of Mahagathbandhan in several constituencies.

The Mahagathbandhan, which is helmed by the RJD, had fallen short of a majority by a dozen seats.

Barring Iman, all the remaining MLAs elected on AIMIM tickets joined the RJD in 2022.