"We have decided to contest on 11 seats in Bihar," says AIMIM MLA Akhtarul Iman

Patna (Bihar) [India], March 13 (ANI): AIMIM will contest 11 out of 40 seats in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in Bihar. The announcement was made by party MLA Akhtarul Iman at a media interaction on Wednesday in Bihar.
"We have decided to contest 11 seats in Bihar," the AIMIM MLA said.
"We tried a lot to save the secular votes in Bihar and at the national level. But these people stabbed us in the back and took away our people But in the interest of the nation, minorities, and Dalits, it is important to support them," he said.
The seats are Araria, Purnia, Katihar, Kishanganj, Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur, Ujiarpur, Karakat, Buxar, Gaya and Bhagalpur.
The announcement came months after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who was at the forefront of the INDIA bloc, joined hands with the BJP-led NDA.
Nitish Kumar, after parting ways with the BJP in 2022, took on the initiative of uniting all opposition forces to jointly take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling party in the national election.
Taking a swipe at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, he said, " Nitish ji did the work by mistake (by joining the NDA). And he wrote the story of his hundreds of offences."
Responding to a query, he said, "Our fight is not for power. But for the deprived class of the state and the nation".
AIMIM had won 5 seats in the 2020 Assembly elections in Bihar, but in 2022 four of its legilsators left the party and joined hands with the RJD. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election AIMIM contested just 1 seat of Kishanganj in Bihar. The AIMIM had contested on 3 seats across India winning from Aurangabad and Hyderabad.
The Lok Sabha elections are expected to be held in April-May. (ANI)