Owaisi offers AIMIM support to Nitish if government keeps communalism at bay

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said the party will extend full cooperation to the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government if it ensures justice for the Seemanchal region and keeps communalism in check. He also criticised the RJD for its declining electoral influence

Patna: AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi has promised “full cooperation” to the NDA government in Bihar, provided Chief Minister Nitish Kumar did “justice” to the Muslim-dominated Seemanchal region, and kept “communalism” at bay.

The Hyderabad MP made remarks to this effect during his two-day tour of Seemanchal, the north-eastern region of Bihar, from where five of the AIMIM’s candidates achieved victory in the recent assembly polls.

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“We extend good wishes to the new government that has been formed in Patna. We can also promise full cooperation provided it does justice to the Seemanchal region and also keeps communalism at bay,” Owaisi said.

The BJP, which is the largest partner in the ruling NDA, has been alleging that “infiltration” was rampant in Seemanchal, which was leading to “demographic imbalance” in the region.

“The AIMIM has been fighting not just for Muslims, but for all people living in Seemanchal, which has a high population of Dalits and tribals, too. We expect the new government to pay some attention to this neglected region, and not remain obsessed with Patna and Rajgir,” Owaisi said.

Rajgir is a famous Buddhist pilgrimage town in Nalanda district, to which Chief Minister Nitish Kumar belongs, and has been chosen for developing several facilities in the past few years, including an international cricket stadium and a film city.

Owaisi also took a veiled dig at the RJD, the INDIA bloc’s largest constituent in Bihar, which had spurned AIMIM’s request for a tie-up in the Assembly polls.

“It has been proven that those who seek the votes of Muslims in the name of stopping the BJP will not be able to stop that party. So, those who have been relying on the MY (Muslim Yadav) combination must do a rethink,” he said. The RJD’s tally in the assembly polls crashed to 25, just one-third of 75 five years earlier.