The secret understanding between the Congress party and the All India Majlis-E-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) had come to fore as the election proceeds. Bihar is the State where the secret understanding between these parties come to fore. Initially the AIMIM has announced that it will contest on 16 seats in Bihar. It has also announced that it will contest from all the four seats of the Seemanchal region, Muslim dominated belt of Bihar.
But the AIMIM has contested only from one seat in the region and the seat is Kishanganj. Kishanganj is tested seat for the AIMIM as in 2019 LS poll. The party contested from the seat strongly and put tough challenge to both the Congress party and the JDU, an ally of the BJP. As per utterances of the party in Bihar it was expected that besides Kishanganj the party will contest from Katihar, Purnia, Araria in Seemanchal region.
But the party had only contested from Kishanganj and forgo claim on other seats. If the AIMIM would not contest from Kishanganj then the Congress party and the AIMIM would have big face loss and their secret understanding would have no words to cover up.
In 17th Lok Sabha the AIMIM had two MPs. Asaduddin Owaisi from Hyderabad and Syed Imtiaz Jaleel from Aurangabad in Maharashtra. Owaisi tries to grab such seats on which there is division of Hindu votes and his Muslim candidate win. Aurangabad in Maharashtra is one of the seats.
In 2020 Assembly election in Bihar the AIMIM had performed remarkably and won 5 seats on its own. Such performance of the party had perturbed other so-called secular parties in Bihar like the Congress party and its long-term partner, the Rashtriya Janta Dal.
The RJD had engineered defection in the party and joined 4 MLAs of the AIMIM into it. This has rattled Asaduddin Owaisi and he vowed revenge to the RJD and its ally the Congress party for such kind of splitting into the AIMIM. Owaisi toured Seemanchal region vigorously to brighten his prospects for 2024 LS election. But at eleventh hour he did not put candidate clearly showed an understanding between these parties.
Seemanchal region is close to West Bengal Muslim dominated area like Murshidabad, Maldaha. It was expected that Owaisi would also enter in that belt of West Bengal on basis of its better performance in Seemanchal region of Bihar.
The main reason for the somersault by Owaisi is the strong challenge being put by the BJP candidate Kompella Madhavi Latha on Owaisi tradition seat of Hyderabad. There was always tactical understanding between the AIMIM and the Congress party regarding Hyderabad seat. The Congress party always put weak candidate against Owaisi so that he can win the election.
In 2009 LS election the Congress party had put Md Azharuddin from Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh. The Congress party did not put Azharuddin from Hyderabad in order to give easy electoral victory to Mr Owaisi. Azharuddin is basically from Hyderabad and he enjoys strong support from locals due to his international cricket performance.
In this election the AIMIM candidate from Hyderabad seat Mohammad Waliullah Sameer is only putting token fight and virtually only put his nomination for sake of nomination. Now in Bihar the AIMIM is planning to field candidates from other seats which are considered strong seats for the NDA. Owaisi is furthering interest of the INDI Alliance in Bihar by dividing the vote bank of the NDA.
AIMIM did not venture to contest from seats in Assam. In Assam Dhubri, Barpeta, Nowgong and some other seats are Muslim dominated. On these seats either the Congress party or the All-India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) are the main players besides the BJP.
Badruddin Ajmal or his family members are the contestants from these seats in Assam. In spite of no alliance with either of the parties the AIMIM did not venture to contest from these seats. This also shows tactical understanding among these parties. Not only that but AIMIM also did not venture to contest from seats in Kashmir especially in valley like Srinagar, Anantnag-Rajouri and Baramulla.
