By Raqib Hameed Naik, TwoCircles.net
Bihar : The Mahagathbandhan (Garden Alliance) of JDU, RJD and Congress, led by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar romped into a landslide victory in Bihar, paving way for Nitish Kumar’s third stint as the Chief Minister.
The Bihar elections result has dealt a huge blow to BJP, who were upbeat since 2014 Lok Sabha elections and subsequent wins in some states. The Mahagathbandhan bagged almost a three-fourths majority, riding on the support of Yadav and Muslim voters.
(Courtesy: indianexpress)The Muslim candidates of the Grand Alliance managed to win 24 seats with 12 from RJD, six from Congress, five from JDU and one from CPI (ML). The number is five more than the last assembly elections, when 19 Muslims candidates were selected in the state Assembly.
All India Majlees-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), the Hyderabad-based political party ended up winning nothing in its Bihar debut.
AIMIM fielded six candidates from Muslim-dominated constituencies in Seemanchal region but lost all the seats. Party chief Asaduddin Owaisi was very optimistic of opening an account in Bihar assembly camping in the area for a couple of weeks and campaigning door to door.
Owaisi had cautiously chosen only six seats fearing that if MIM fights on more seats and votes get divided then he will be tagged with ‘vote katwa’ for secular votes. However, nothing like happened.
MIM earned 80,248 total votes, constituting 0.2% of total votes in the election. The best performance was put forward by Akhtarul Imaan from Kochadhaman constituency where he stood second and lost to JD (U)’s Mujahid Alam with 18,843 votes. Imaan is MIM’s party chief in Bihar who was also a former member of Bihar assembly. He was earlier with the JDU and the Rashtriya Janata Dal.
Another candidate, Tasiruddin, earned 16,440 votes from Kishanganj and stood third, though he lagged by more than 40,000 votes when compared with BJP’s Sweety Singh, who came second to Dr. Muhammad Jawaid, who won with a margin of nearly 9,000 votes.
Ghulam Sarwar from Baisi constituency settled at fourth with only 16,723 votes. Remaining three of its candidates – Md Nawazish Alam (Armour), Mohammed Adil Hasan (Balrampur) and a non-Muslim face from SC seat of Raniganj Dr. Amit Kumar lost their deposits.
List of 24 Muslim Candidates who won in Bihar Assembly Elections 2015 :
Abdul Bari siddiqui (RJD, Ali Nagar)
Abdul Jaleel Mastan (Congress, Amour)
Abid ur Rehman (Congress, Arriah )
Mohd Nawaz Alam (RJD, Arra)
Tausif Alam (Congress, Bahadu Ganj)
Abdul Subhan (RJD, Basai)
Mahboob Alam (CPI ML, Balrampur)
Nematullah (RJD, Baruli )
Fayaz Alam (RJD, Bisfi )
Mohd Ilyas Hussain (RJD, Dehri )
Faisal ur Rehman (RJD, Dhaka )
Sarfaraz Alam(JDU, Jokihat )
Shakeel Ahmed Khan (Congress, Kadwa )
Afaq alam (Congress,Kasba)
Faraz Fatimi (RJD, Keoti)
Mohd Javed Alam (Congress, Kishan ganj )
Mujahid Alam (JDU, Kochadhaman)
Abdul Ghafoor (RJD, Mahisi)
Shamim Ahmed (RJD, Narkatia )
Akhtarul Islam Shaheen (RJD, Samasti pur)
Sharfuddin (JDU, Sheohar)
Khurdsheed Afroz Alam (JDU, Sikta )
Syed Abu Dujana (RJD, Sursana)
Naushad Alam (JDU, Thakurganj)