Some time ago, most news experts and analysts in Delhi thought that the Bihar elections would be child’s play for the NDA. However, a sudden wave of support for Nitish Kumar’s young and energetic rival, Tejashwi Yadav, changed the scene. This was supported by the majority of the exit polls.
A section of the same analysts hastily predicted that the big underdog alliance could sweep the polls. Once again, things did not rush as predicted. The NDA narrowly defeated the grand alliance on the night of results day.
A significant highlight of the party was the electoral performance of Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM). This was the second election of the Owai assembly in Bihar. His party won five of the 20 seats in which he contested.
Now he is being accused of helping the BJP. A video of Rajdeep Sardesai interviewing Owaisi went viral on Twitter. Sardesai questioned Owaisi about “eating the secular vows.” During the same program of debates, Pawan Khera of Congress alleged that Owaisi is riding a wave of “reverse radicalization” of minorities. Yogendra Yadav of the Swaraj Party expressed deep concern about the possibility of AIMIM attracting Muslim support. At a press conference, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary alerted the “secular parties” to his “vote-cutter” tactics. Owaisi responded, saying that he is rekindling minorities’ hope for a shrinking democracy.
What AIMIM Performance Says
While there is a massive uproar that Owaisi splits the Muslim vote and helps the NDA, all of these accusations fail when we analyze the data. Of the 20 seats that AIMIM contested, NDA was successful in six seats. In just one of these seats, the votes in favor of AIMIM were more than the margin of victory for the NDA candidates. Raniganj is the only seat where AIMIM obtained more votes than the margin of victory between the NDA and the mahagathbandhan candidates. There, AIMIM candidate Roshan Devi got 2,412 votes, 108 votes more than JD (U) ‘s margin of victory (2,304) over RJD.
In the election campaign, the reckless congressional attack to discredit AIMIM only seemed to increase its popularity in Seemanchal. In the presence of Rahul Gandhi, Abdul Jaleel Mastan, a Congressional MLA, said that he would break the limbs of “outsider” Owaisi and send him back to Hyderabad. Mastan, a six-time MLA from Amour, received 31,863 votes and placed third, and former MLA BJP Saba Zafar, who competed this time from JDU, came in second. AIMIM’s Akhtarul Imam won this seat by a considerable margin.
AIMIM was in direct competition with the NDA in four of the five seats it won. Jokihat was the only seat where he directly challenged RJD. His candidate Shahnawaz defeated his own brother Sarfaraz (RJD) with 7383 votes. AIMIM also challenged the Sherghati seat, in which an RJD candidate who is an expelled member of the BJP was successful. Prior to this, she was an active member of the fringe group Durga Vahini, the women’s wing of the VHP. In Aurangabad, another seat with a sizable Muslim population, Congress put forward a candidate accused of inciting communal passion during Ramanavami in 2018. So how exactly were the “secular” votes for the grand alliance affected in those seats?
We should also look at the various strong Muslim candidates put forward by RJD, such as Abdul Bari Siddiqui. He was unable to benefit from RJD’s camaraderie between Muslims and Yadav, while non-Muslim candidates benefited from Muslim votes.
This is not the first time that Congress has made such accusations. During the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, when AIMIM was contesting only one seat out of 40 in Bihar, it was accused of polarizing “secular votes”. The only seat in Kishanganj, where its state president Akhtarul Imam was the candidate, in a close contest it finished third with 2.95,029 votes. Congressional candidate Mohammad Jawed won that seat with 3.67,017 votes. Congressional argument alleging that Owaisi aided BJP is void as he did not contest the other 39 seats in Bihar, where Mahagathbandhan was unable to defeat BJP and its allies at the time.
CAA, a voting matter
During the current Bihar elections, the constant congressional attack on Owaisi was misplaced. He posed as an alternative to the NDA government in Bihar and not as the sole guardian of Muslim voters. Congressmen like Imran Pratapgarhi, who was unable to salvage his Moradabad deposits in the Lok Sabha elections, repeatedly attacked AIMIM. On the issue of the anti-CAA and NRC protests, he asked why Owaisi did not visit Shaheen Bagh. One may recall that Rahul Gandhi or Arvind Kejriwal did not visit Shaheen Bagh either.
Meanwhile, Owaisi was the most vocal opponent of the new citizenship law in Parliament. In fact, he even broke that bill on the house in defiance. Owaisi addressed various anti-CAA rallies and public gatherings throughout India and specifically in Hyderabad. At the same time, leaders of “secular parties” like the AAP and Congress preferred a more convenient “strategic silence”.
In Delhi, Muslims strongly supported the AAP to stop openly belligerent rhetoric against Muslims from the BJP. Despite the AAP victory, the Muslims suffered. In less than two weeks after the election results were announced, New Delhi witnessed the deadliest anti-Muslim riots since Partition. Many critics accused the AAP government of looking away as mobs shot and looted Muslim neighborhoods in northeast Delhi. Some even accuse CM Kejriwal of following Amit Shah’s line. The official position of the Aam Aadmi Party on Shaheen Bagh now is that it was a conspiracy of the BJP.
Owai’s stance on CAA hasn’t changed one iota. He has argued that the law must be repealed and that all political prisoners must be released. After the Delhi riots, he movingly expressed the anguish of all Indian Muslims in parliament. In Bihar, his vocal attacks on the anti-minority policy of the BJP forced the mahagathbandhan to break his silence on the CAA.
‘Development’, an unheard of agenda in Seemanchal
Seemanchal, a Muslim-dominated area, is always among the lowest in social development indices. Since Independence, it has been represented primarily by Congress, or in recent years by its allies such as the RJD. Muslims in each election were given the responsibility of preserving secularism. They had to put aside their development needs like schools, highways, hospitals and universities by voting en masse for Congress and the RJD. Although they managed to rescue secularism, they never received attention from successive “secular” governments. The unrest was so severe that the “secular” parties did not even mention the development during their campaigns. Seemanchal Muslims were fed up with the “BJP aa jayegi“Blackmail”.
Meanwhile, Owaisi focused his campaign on underdevelopment. His “Seemanchal ko nyayAnd the promise of better representation turned into votes, as the anti-incumbent did against representatives of Mahagathbandhan. While the development was a focal point in his speeches, he spoke in detail about the CAA-NRC protests, rampant violence by mobs, and the “unfair” verdict of Babri Masjid. He frequently questioned Kamal Nath and Priyanka Gandhi’s “soft-Hindutva” welcoming stance on the Babri issue.
AIMIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi at a rally in Bihar’s Kishanganj. Photo: Asaduddinowaisi / Facebook
The forefront of minority rights in parliament
With the BJP giving an aggressive push to its Hindu nationalist agenda, the “secular parties” have struggled to find a powerful ideological response in the past six years. At times, they have chosen to be strategically silent when their voices are most needed. Many have adopted their own version of “soft Hindutva”.
With Owaisi, whether chanting particular national slogans or the Babri demolition theme, unlike the Congress party, he has vehemently protested all these narrow litmus tests for national belonging. While Congress supported the draconian UAPA in parliament, Owaisi warned that UAPA will be used indiscriminately against Muslims and political dissidents. In the past six years, many Muslims have faced violent attacks by extremist Hindu mobs under the guise of “love jihad”, slaughter of cows, forced chanting of Hindu slogans, and sometimes simply for appearing Muslim. The “secular parties” did not support the Muslims. However, Owaisi has been consistent in criticizing the government for its failure to prevent and instigate hate crimes against minorities.
Muslim voters are not naïve or radical. They also want a sense of belonging. The “secular parties” have not been able to provide that. Owai’s passionate speeches and defense of minority rights had to be translated sooner or later into votes. AIMIM’s exploits in Bihar mark the end of the congressional monopoly over Muslim voters. This will expand the democratic agency of Muslims. Now they can negotiate more with these parties that have treated them like scared cattle.
The use of terms like “vote cutter” or “B-team” for one legitimate political party by another is an insult not only to democratic values but also to the independent agency of the voters. The constitutional right to participate in electoral districts extends to all political parties, not just one.
Owai’s alliance with Upendra Kushwaha led the RLSP, Mayawati BSP and two other small parties demonstrates their intentions to expand their voter base to non-Muslims. Although AIMIM only contested 20 seats, 5 of its candidates were non-Muslim. Owaisi has clarified his intentions to participate in the elections in West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. If the “secular parties” have learned anything from Bihar, they will not simply discredit Owaisi. As a party that may ally itself with Shiv Sena in Maharashtra in the name of “preserving democracy” cannot digest the rise of would-be Muslims, this smacks of nothing but insecurity and misplaced anger, as it marks the end of politics. of the “secularism of hostages.” ”.
Neel Madhav and Alishan Jafri are freelance journalists. Neel, based in Khagaria, Bihar, closely observes day-to-day politics, while Alishan, based in New Delhi, writes on communalism and minorities.
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