The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), led by Asaduddin Owaisi, has expressed interest in joining the Mahagathbandhan alliance in Bihar ahead of the upcoming assembly elections. The grand alliance currently includes the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Congress, and Left parties.
AIMIM’s Bihar state president and the party’s lone MLA, Akhtarul Iman, has formally written to RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, urging that the party be included in the opposition alliance. In his letter dated July 2, Iman said the move would help prevent a split in secular votes and boost the prospects of the Mahagathbandhan forming the next government.
“The inclusion of AIMIM in Bihar’s prototype of the INDIA bloc will prevent division of secular votes and strengthen the fight against BJP,” Iman wrote, according to party leaders who shared the letter on social media.
Iman noted that AIMIM had attempted to join the alliance during the 2020 assembly elections as well, and added that Owaisi had already conveyed his interest to leaders of Congress and the Left.
In the 2020 elections, AIMIM had contested in alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the now-defunct Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP), winning five seats—mostly in the Muslim-majority Seemanchal region. However, all but Iman later joined the RJD in 2022.
At the time, the Mahagathbandhan had fallen short of a majority by just a dozen seats, with several analysts arguing that AIMIM’s presence in key constituencies had split opposition votes.
As of now, the RJD and other alliance members have not publicly responded to AIMIM’s request.
