Last phase of polling will test Owaisi’s appeal
He was acknowledged as the X-factor in the Bihar assembly polls, a potential game-changer who could be a serious threat to the political big guns. But with just one round left in the fivephase elections, the All India Majlis-e-Ittihadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Asaduddin Owaisi may not have created the kind of ripples that would give his party a big boost in the country’s northern belt.
The answer to this lukewarm response comes from the crowd that emerges from a mosque after the Friday prayers at Sontha Haat in Kochadhaman assembly constituency of the Muslim-dominated Kishanganj district — the political epicentre of Owaisi’s Bihar adventure.
“People such as Owaisi come and go, but Nitish Kumar is the one who has brought development. Our vote is for the ‘teer chhap’ (the JD(U) symbol),” said 52-year-old Akram Raza, who works as a driver.
Twenty one-year-old Rahid Anwar, a student, went as far as describing Owaisi as only a ‘vote-katwa’, a non-serious candidate interested only in dividing votes.
Seemanchal — which was supposed be Owaisi’s launch pad before his big plunge into the political terrain of Uttar Pradesh in 2017 — accounts for 24 assembly seats. But ahead of the polls on November 5, things don’t look too rosy for the party.
Past trends show that the region, whose four districts border Nepal and is close to Bangladesh, has usually swung one way or another.
In the 2010 assembly elections, the BJP-JD(U) combine swept the polls, winning 19 of the 24 seats. The trend was reversed in the last parliamentary elections, when the Congress bagged the Kishanganj and Supoul seats.
“Initial damage was done when Owaisi scaled down plans by deciding to contest just six of the region’s 24 seats. This region has largely had a history of communal harmony, which is not in sync with Owaisi’s brand of radical minority-ism,” said Purnea-based historian Rameshwar Prasad.
But for one reserved constituency where he has fielded a Dalit candidate, Owaisi has put up Muslim candidates in all other places that have up to 70% minority population.
“But electoral battles are not a numbers game alone. Victory or defeat often depends on the perception that candidates and their leaders create. So far, Owaisi has not been able to convincingly demonstrate that he will stay and fight for Bihar,” said Pramod Thakur, who runs a school in the Kochadhaman constituency.
AIMIM state president and candidate from Kochadhaman, however, said the party was a new entrant, which would do better than what people expected. “We are not fighting for a loss or win. Our fight is for the development of Seemanchal,” he told HT.