Patna: As Bihar gears up for the 2025 Assembly elections, Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) is once again focusing on the Muslim-majority Seemanchal region, even as the party faces challenges from within. Several of its former legislators and candidates have defected to rival parties, raising questions about AIMIM’s ability to repeat its 2020 success.
In the 2020 elections, AIMIM emerged as a decisive player in select constituencies. The party won five seats and secured 27 percent of votes in areas with over 40 percent Muslim population. Its concentrated support in eastern Bihar helped shape the electoral balance, even though its overall vote share was only 1.3 percent across the state.
Since then, four of the five winning AIMIM MLAs have joined the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). Only Akhtarul Iman, the party’s Bihar president, remains with AIMIM and will contest again. Several 2020 candidates have also shifted allegiance, some now representing the RJD or Congress.
Despite the defections, AIMIM is fielding candidates in 28 constituencies, most of them in Seemanchal, an area marked by economic deprivation and communal polarisation. The party hopes to channel community discontent and retain its influence among Muslim voters.
Analysts say AIMIM’s performance in 2025 will indicate whether the party’s appeal among Bihar’s Muslims remains intact or has waned due to internal fragmentation and shifting loyalties.
