The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), led by Asaduddin Owaisi, has officially announced 25 candidates for the Bihar Assembly elections. This move comes after the party’s earlier pledge to contest ‘100 seats’ following its exclusion from the INDIA bloc. The list, released on Sunday, October 19, 2025, includes two non-Muslim candidates, signaling a broader electoral strategy.
Among the announced candidates is Akhtarul Iman, the current State President of AIMIM and the party’s sole sitting MLA in Bihar. The party shared the candidate list on ‘X’, emphasizing its commitment to representing the state’s most vulnerable communities.
In their social media announcement, AIMIM stated, “We are happy to announce the list of AIMIM candidates for the upcoming Bihar elections. The candidates were finalised by AIMIM’s Bihar Unit, in consultation with the party’s national leadership. Inshallah, we will be a voice of justice for Bihar’s weakest and most neglected.”
Akhtarul Iman has been renominated to contest from Amour. This constituency saw a notable change, with Saba Zafar, the 2020 runner-up, being replaced by Sabir Ali, a former Rajya Sabha MP who was expelled from Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) eleven years prior.
As anticipated, the majority of the seats targeted by AIMIM are located in the Seemanchal region. This flood-prone north-eastern part of Bihar is characterized by a significant Muslim population, making it a key focus area for the party.
Expanding its outreach, AIMIM has also nominated Manoj Kumar Das for the Sikandra constituency, a reserved seat in the south-central district of Gaya. The incumbent MLA, Prafull Kumar Manjhi from Union Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM), is seeking a third consecutive term from this seat.
Furthermore, in the Dhaka constituency of East Champaran, which shares a border with Nepal, the party has fielded Rana Ranjeet Singh. He is the brother of former Minister and BJP MLA Rana Randheer Singh, who is eyeing a hat-trick from the adjacent Madhuban constituency. The current BJP candidate for Dhaka is Pawan Kumar Jaiswal.
During the last Assembly elections, AIMIM contested 19 seats and secured victories in five. However, four of its elected MLAs subsequently defected to the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).
The party had previously reached out to RJD president Lalu Prasad and his son Tejashwi Yadav, expressing its willingness to join the polls as a constituent of the INDIA bloc. However, these overtures did not receive any response from the RJD leadership.