Owaisi Offers Nitish Support if Govt Keeps Communalism in Check

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. 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 kept 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.