Why NDA fielded only 5 Muslim faces in Bihar elections

Bihar’s ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) beat the Opposition Grand Alliance in releasing the names of its candidates for the upcoming Bihar assembly elections, but its ‘battle-readiness’ has not been able to fix all its ambiguities.

For example, the NDA’s list of candidates for the two-phase election has only five Muslim figures, which is only 2.05 per cent of its total number of contestants — 243. Contrast this with the Muslim population of the state, which is 17.7 per cent, and voters from that community play a key role in the final results in dozens of Assembly seats that go to polls.

JD(U) fields four Muslim faces

The Janata Dal (United) or JD(U), one of the top allies in the NDA and led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, has fielded four Muslim candidates while the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), led by Union Minister Chirag Paswan, has given the ticket to just one.

The story is no different with other smaller parties in the bloc — the Hindustani Awam League (Secular) of Union Minister and former Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi and the Rashtriya Lok Marcha of former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha.

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Shahnawaz Hussain not visible

The BJP, which leads the NDA, has, like in the 2020 polls, not picked a single Muslim face for this election despite fielding 101 candidates (the same as the JD(U)). Even Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, one of the BJP’s popular Muslim faces from Bihar and a former minister both at the Centre and the state, has not been given a preference in the ongoing electioneering.

While some would have expected the saffron party to give him a ticket to contest the polls either from Bhagalpur or Kishanganj, two places from where he has won the parliamentary election in the past, he was not only overlooked as a contestant but also as a star campaigner for the party, which has chosen 40 of them, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

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The BJP has a line of defence for taking such a decision. One of its leaders said the Muslim community opposes the party and votes to defeat it, which makes the idea of fielding a candidate from that community meaningless. Even if a Muslim face has won in the past, it is because of the support of the majority community, the logic goes.

'What's the use of fielding Muslim candidates?'

“What is the use of fielding Muslim candidate when the community hardly votes for us. Our Muslim candidates won the polls in the past due to the overwhelming support of the majority community,” the leader told The Federal.

The JD(U)’s four Muslim candidates for the 2025 elections include Mohammad Zama Khan, popularly known as Zaman Khan, its only Muslim MLA and also a state minister. Five years ago, Nitish’s party fielded 11 Muslim faces, but none of them won. It was a big setback for the leader, who still has the image of a secular leader despite allying with the BJP for years.

In the 2015 polls, when the party contested in alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), it fielded seven candidates. As the RJD’s focus was on its traditional Muslim-Yadav (MY) support base, it was not surprising that more Muslim candidates were fielded.

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The JD(U) sought to focus on non-Yadav OBCs, EBCs and Dalits as a part of the electoral strategy. Nitish’s party was benefited by the overwhelming support of Muslims in that election and ended up with 71 seats, the second highest after the RJD, which won 80. The BJP, which ended third with 53 seats, fielded two Muslim faces.

In the 2010 polls, the JD(U) fielded 17 Muslim candidates despite being in alliance with the BJP. Even in the second electoral battle of 2005, after which Nitish became the chief minister for the first time, the JD(U) fielded nine Muslim candidates.

Arshad Azmal, a Bihar-based social activist, said the JD(U) this time has fielded Muslim candidates in the constituencies where it expects to get support of the community along with others.

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“Why will the JD(U) or, say, any other secular allies of the NDA, take the risk of fielding more Muslim candidates, as there is a strong possibility that they will not get enough support to win the electoral battle?” he asked.

BJP's 'Muslim-Mukt' agenda

In a reference to the BJP, Azmal said the saffron party has been working on the agenda to ensure “Muslim-Mukt” politics. Stressing that the BJP has a clear policy of not including Muslims in politics, Azmal said, “There was a time in the 1980s, 1990s or even till early 2000s, when the BJP had a few known Muslim faces, like Sikandar Bakht, Arif Beg, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, and Shahnawaz Hussain, but not anymore,” he said.

Azmal opined that Muslims would not vote for the JD(U) this time unlike in the previous polls.

Political analyst Soroor Ahmad was not disagreeing. According to him, the party reduced the number of Muslim candidates keeping in view the winnability factor. A Muslim candidate’s victory would be possible either in a constituency having a sizeable number of voters from that community or a favourable caste equation on the ground, bringing votes from other parties, he said.

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Muslims' trust in Nitish has eroded

Ahmad recalled when Nitish took the Muslims into confidence in the 2010 election, they rewarded him with their votes. Under his leadership, the NDA swept the polls with a thumping majority with the JD(U) alone bagging 115 out of 243 seats.

Things gradually started changing after 2015 as the Muslims disassociated themselves because of Nitish’s open support for the BJP’s agenda. The community’s disenchantment with Nitish Kumar was visible in the 2020 Assembly polls due to his party’s support for the National Register of Citizens-Citizenship Amendment Act (NRC-CAA) in 2019 and now the Waqf (Amendment) Act.

The Muslim community’s first major expression of unhappiness with Nitish in recent years became evident during the mega June 29 rally in Patna held by various Muslim organisations against the Waqf (Amendment) Act.

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It was not an isolated instance of growing Muslim fury against Nitish and his party. In March this year, the Muslims collectively boycotted the Iftar party at the CM’s residence, responding to a call by Imarat-e-Shariah, an influential Patna-based Muslim body working for the rights and empowerment of the Muslim community in Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha.

The Imarat-e-Shariah also organised a protest in Patna along with the All India Muslim Personal Law All India Muslim Personal Law Board on March 26 to oppose the Waqf Bill, particularly Nitish Kumar and the JD(U)'s support for it. The message was loud and clear.

'Fewer Muslim candidates not good for democracy'

A political observer expressed his concern over the declining number of Muslim candidates in the NDA. “If the number of candidates is low, it is bound to impact the chance of their representation in proportion to their population. This is not good for a healthy democracy,” he told The Federal.

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It is a common perception that in Bihar, the Muslims vote en bloc with a minority mindset, which was revealed in different studies and surveys.

According to a post-poll survey of the 2020 Bihar Assembly polls conducted by the Delhi-based CSDS, the majority of Muslims — about 76 per cent — voted for the RJD-led Opposition ‘Mahagathbandhan’.

The Muslims have a sizeable presence in the backward Seemanchal region that has 24 Assembly seats, comprising the four districts of Araria, Purnea, Kishanganj, and Katihar. Muslim support matters in most assembly constituencies in these districts. Besides, in dozens of constituencies spread across the state, Muslim voters play a deciding factor. In Bihar’s caste-dominated politics, their support can seal the final outcome.

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More than 80 Assembly seats in Bihar have 20 per cent Muslim population, followed by over 40 that have 15 per cent.

Although the Muslims’ loyalty to Lalu Prasad’s RJD is well known in Bihar, about 25-30 per cent of them reportedly voted for the JD(U) in consecutive elections in the past two-and-a-half decades (barring 2020).

But after 2019, when Nitish supported the CAA-NRC after returning to the NDA’s fold, the Muslims, who widely saw him as a defender of secularism despite his long association with the BJP, were disappointed, and only a small section voted for him in the 2020 Assembly polls in which his party won only 43 seats, its lowest ever.

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“This time, the number will go down further because Muslims are totally disenchanted with Nitish for his repeated stand against their cause,” said Shams Khan, an activist.

According to a CSDS-Lokniti survey, Muslim support and vote percentage for Nitish and the JD(U) have gone down since 2015. This reflects their discomfort over Nitish’s support for the BJP’s agenda that hurt the Muslims.