Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM Plays Spoilsport By Making A Dent Into Muslim Votes In Bihar Elections
New Age Islam Special
Correspondent
13 November
2020
Asaduddin Owaisi
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The
allegation of being a vote cutter against Owaisi's AIMIM may not hold true when
we closely analyse the results of Bihar assembly elections 2020 but it is true
that the AIMIM only targets Muslim votes and therefore weakens the secular
forces, particularly the Grand Alliance formed to fight BJP-led NDA. That's
where the AIMIM can be blamed for strengthening the BJP which it actually
claims to fight.
The AIMIM
contested 14 seats in the Seemanchal region which comprises Kishanganj, Araria,
Katihar and Purnia Lok Sabha constituencies.
According
to the Election Commission statistics, Kishanganj has above 60% Muslim
population, Araria has 45% Muslim population, Katihar has 40% and Purnia has
above 30% Muslim population.
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The AIMIM
contested in 14 assembly constituencies of Seemanchal and won in only 5 seats
out of six assembly seats of Kishanganj Lok Sabha constituency namely Baisi,
Jaukihat, Bahadurganj, Amour and Kochadhaman. One assembly seat of Kishanganj
Lok Sabha constituency, Thakurganj was retained by RJD.
This was
not a great achievement because Owaisi wrested these four seats from the
Congress and the RJD.
The seats
of Baisi and Jaukihat were with the Congress and Bahadurganj and Amour were
with the Congress. Kochadhaman was with the JDU.
Therefore,
by winning these seats Owaisi's party did not make a dent into the vote share of
the BJP but wrested the seats held by secular parties RJD and Congress at a
time RJD and Congress needed them the most.
their Muslim
identity is lost.
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Also
Read: Sultan Shahin, Not Owaisi, Represents India’s Muslims
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It won
seats of Kishanganj Lok Sabha seats where Muslims form more than 60% of the
population. Since Owaisi had fielded his candidates against sitting MLAs of RJD
and Congress, he campaigned against the secular Grand Alliance though the
opposition parties target the ruling party/parties in the election and
criticise the wrong and anti-people policies of the ruling party. But Owaisi criticised
RJD and Congress and tried to convince the Muslim masses that RJD-Congress
combine was a bigger threat to them than the BJP-led NDA. The result was that
the Muslims of Kishanganj Lok Sabha constituency voted for the AIMIM.
In the
constituencies of Katihar, Araria and Purnia, the AIMIM could not win seats
because the Muslim population in those constituencies was less than 40% and
also the Muslims of these constituencies had realised that voting for the AIMIM
will only weaken the secular Grand Alliance and strengthen the NDA.
Therefore,
in Araria, the AIMIM polled only 8924 votes. The Congress won by polling 1,03,
054 votes even though Shagufta Azim of JDU polled 55118 votes.
In Pranpur
constituency the AIMIM lost deposit as it polled only 508 votes. But in this
constituency, an independent candidate Ishrat Perween played spoilsport and
paved the way for the BJP's victory. In this constituency, the BJP got the
highest 79974 votes while the Congress candidate Tauqeer Alam got 77002 votes,
about 2000 votes less than the BJP. But the Independent candidate Ishrat
Perween got 19746, almost 20, 000 votes. If she had not contested, the 20,000
Muslim votes would have gone to the Congress and Congress would have won by
18000 votes.
Here,
Muslim voters seem to have been so much influenced by anti-Congress rants of
Owaisi that they preferred an Independent over the Congress.
In Katihar,
RJD had fielded Ram Prakash Mahto but three Muslim candidates SDPI's Md Zameed
and two Independents Md Kalamuddin Ansari and Afaque also contested. The BJP
won Katihar.
In Rupauli,
BJP won but it was because the secular votes were divided by two secular
parties, LJNSP and CPI. The BJP polled 64324 votes and LJNSP polled 44994 and
the CPI polled 41963. Together they polled more than 85000 votes. So, BJP won
due to the division of seculae votes.
In a couple
of seats it was the BSP that caused the division of secular votes and
facilitated the victory of the NDA.
On the
whole, only AIMIM cannot be blamed for giving an edge to the BJP but other
secular parties like BSP, NCP and other regional parties of Bihar are also to
blame.
NOTA also
played a big role in the defeat of the Grand Alliance. The NOTA votes even
totalled up to 4000. In Rupauli and Forbesganj the NOTA votes were between 3000
and 4000. This reflects the resentment of large number of voters against the
ruling BJP-JDU alliance and a lack of trust on secular parties. A large number
of Grand Alliance candidates lost by a hundred votes. If the Congress and RJD
had revived the faith of NOTA voters in the election process and had won their
confidence, the Grand Alliance would have reached the required number.
Therefore,
it can be said that Owaisi's policy of targetting only the Muslims may win him
some seats at the cost of secular parties, but he will end up only
strengthening the communal forces though he claims to fight for the empowerment
of Muslims.
It is
intriguing that he does not speak about uniting the Muslims and the backward
sections of India. It can be recalled that during the anti-NRC movement, his
colleague Waris Pathan had made a communal remark when Muslim and Dalit leaders
were trying to forge a Muslim-Dalit alliance.
Therefore,
his concentrating on the Muslim population of Kishanganj and targetting only
the seats already with the Congress and RJD creates doubts over his real
political agenda.
URL; https://newageislam.com/current-affairs/asaduddin-owaisi-aimim-plays-spoilsport/d/123462
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