Owaisi demands Seemanchal Development Council as MIM prepares to contest LS polls in Bihar

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.