HYDERABAD: With the ruling Janata Dal (United) and the BJP engaged in coming to an understanding over seat sharing for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections for Bihar LS seats, AIMIM leader
Asaduddin Owaisi is also preparing ground to bag some select seats. The Hyderabad MP addressed two public meetings in Seemanchal region of Bihar demanding that the region be accorded special status under article 371. He said a
Seemanchal Development Council
should be constituted to take up development of the backward region.
There are four Lok Sabha seats in the region with also a considerable Muslim population. "The issue that I am raising concerns everyone in Seemanchal. Those leaders who asked you for your votes looked after their own interests. Those ruling from Patna have ignored the needs of Seemanchal. This cannot be allowed to continue,” Asaduddin Owaisi said in a public meeting he addressed in Baisi, Purnea on July 11. He also addressed another public meeting on July 10 at Thakurgunj.
Asaduddin Owaisi said people of Seemanchal should not settle for anything less than a
Development Council
as they had been deprived of development all these years. "There are no hospitals and colleges in Seemanchal. This region is meted out step-motherly treatment," he said. Owaisi wanted that people of the region should unite and get their demands met.
"Some people come here to ask you for votes. But I am not the ‘maalik’ of a ‘natak’ company like someone else to do some drama before you to seek votes. All I am asking you to do is use your vote for your own development and not someone else’s benefit,” Owaisi said.
In the 2014 LS elections, the Katihar LS seat was won by NCP, Araria by RJD, Kishangunj by Congress, and Purnia by JD (U). However, in the 2009 elections, BJP had won three seats – Katihar, Araria and Purnia, while Congress won Kishanganj. The AIMIM contested six seats in the 2015 assembly elections but did not win any.
For the upcoming LS elections in 2019, Asaduddin Owaisi declared Akhtarul Iman as the MIM’s candidate from the Kishangunj seat. Akhtarul Iman is the party’s incharge of Bihar.
Sushil Rao is Editor-Special Reports, at The Times of India, Hyde...
Read MoreSushil Rao is Editor-Special Reports, at The Times of India, Hyderabad. He began his journalism career at the age of 20 in 1988. He is a gold medalist in journalism from the Department of Communication and Journalism, Arts College, Osmania University, Hyderabad from where he did his post-graduation from. He has been with The Times of India’s Hyderabad edition since its launch in 2000. He has also done an introductory course in film studies from the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, and also from the Central University of Kerala equipping himself with the knowledge of filmmaking for film criticism. He has authored four books. In his career spanning 34 years, he has worked for five newspapers and has also done television reporting. He was also a web journalist during internet’s infancy in the mid 1990s in India. He covers defence, politics, diaspora, innovation, administration, the film industry, Hyderabad city and Telangana state, and human interest stories. He is also a podcaster, blogger, does video reporting and makes documentaries.
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