RJD weans away four AIMIM MLAs in Bihar; becomes largest party again

In a significant political development that may have wider ramifications in the coming days, four out of five AIMIM MLAs in Bihar changed colours for greener pastures and joined the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in Patna on Wednesday.

The AIMIM, which won five seats in the 243-member House in Bihar during the November 2020 Assembly elections, is now left with its sole MLA, Akhtarul Imam, also the AIMIM's Bihar unit president.

The AIMIM had done significant damage to the Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) in general and the RJD-Congress in particular in the 2020 polls by contesting 20 seats in Seemanchal (northeastern Bihar, which has a sizeable Muslim population) and winning five. The RJD, while it emerged as the single largest party, could not form the government as it remained marginally short of the halfway mark, thanks to the damage the AIMIM purportedly did to it.

On Wednesday, the Leader of the Opposition and former deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav avenged the 'near-miss' of 2020 when he split the AIMIM. The four AIMIM MLAs who joined the RJD are Shahnawaz Alam (Jokihat), Azhar Nayeemi (Bahadurganj), Mohammad Asfi (Kochadamam) and Syed Ruknuddin (Baisi).

With today's development, the RJD's strength is now 80 in the House. It had won 75 seats in 2020 and recently triumphed in a bypoll. The BJP, which won 74 seats in 2020, recently split the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP), a constituent of the NDA, and made three MLAs join the BJP, leaving VIP chief Mukesh Sahani seething with rage. The BJP, thereafter, became the single largest party in Bihar, with its numbers swelling to 77, till the RJD came up with its master stroke on Wednesday and upset the numbers game.

Tejashwi personally escorted the four AIMIM MLAs to the Assembly Speaker Vijay Sinha's office and said the four legislators had "reposed complete faith in the RJD and its leadership."

The move also provides the most unmistakable evidence that in the game of political one-upmanship, Tejashwi is no novice and may give many veterans a run for their money if a situation arises. In his bid to keep the saffron brigade in check, he recently invited Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to his residence for Iftar. This was followed by a decision to hold a caste census in Bihar, on which Nitish and Tejashwi were on the same page.

RJD sources told Deccan Herald that the decision of the four AIMIM MLAs to dump their parent organisation and join hands with Tejashwi stemmed from the fact that the Hyderabad-based political party fared extremely poorly in the recent UP Assembly poll. "They were apprehensive that if the current trend did not change, then AIMIM would come a cropper during Bihar Assembly polls in 2025," said the RJD source, who wished not to be identified.