AIMIM to contest Bihar Assembly polls in alliance with SJD: Owaisi

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Friday announced that his party will contest Bihar Assembly polls in alliance with Devendra Prasad Yadav's Samajwadi Janata Dal (Democratic).

He said that the alliance will defeat the NDA and will teach a lesson to Congress and other "so called" political parties.

"We welcome this decision. Of course, it would be challenging to take part in elections during an epidemic but AIMIM is ready for this. Majlis along with Devendra Prasad Yadav's Samajwadi Janata Dal (Democratic) will contest Bihar polls under "United Democratic Secular Alliance. Inshallah, we will not only defeat the Nitish-Modi duo but will also teach a lesson to the Congress and other so called secular parties," Owaisi tweeted.

The Bihar Assembly elections will be held in three phases with polling to take place on October 28, and November 3 and 7, with the counting of votes to take place on November 10.

In the 2015 Assembly polls, JDU, RJD, and Congress had fought the elections together under the Mahagathbandhan banner. On the other hand, the BJP-led NDA had fought the elections with Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and other allies.

RJD with 80 seats had emerged as the single largest party in the elections, followed by JDU (71), and BJP (53). However, BJP got the largest vote share (24.42 per cent), followed by RJD with 18.35 per cent and JDU (16.83 per cent).

After the polls, however, a rift emerged between JDU and the RJD in 2017, leading to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar snapping ties and rejoining ties with the BJP-led NDA to retain power in Bihar.