Bihar elections: Congress fields controversial ex-AMU student union head Maskoor Usmani

A controversy broke out ahead of Bihar elections as the Congress party gave ticket to former Aligarh Muslim University Student’s Union chief Maskoor Usmani. The grand-old party has chosen him to contest from Jale assembly constituency in Dharbhanga district. While BJP has slammed Congress for choosing a "Jinnah supporter" as their candidate, some Congress leaders in the state have opined that it may lead to controversy and may harm the party. 

Who is Maskoor Usmani?

Usmani was a student union chief in AMU in 2017 and had made headlines after BJP Aligarh MP Satish Gautam wrote to the university vice-chancellor objecting to the portrait of Pakistan's father of nation Mohammad Ali Jinnah that is hung in the University. Usmani was then accused of raising anti-national slogans. In 2019, he was booked under sedition for the same, but charges were later dropped. However, AMU administration had stated that the portrait of Jinnah was put up in the University since 1938 and he has been given a 'lifetime membership'. Others, including Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, were also given 'lifetime membership' and their portraits are also placed in the University.

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Seat-sharing formula of RJD-Cong alliance 

Congress is contesting on 70 seats in Bihar as the party agreed to a seat-sharing deal of 144-70 with the RJD. Three other Communist parties are also part of Mahagathbandhan and are contesting on 29 seats. Tejashwi Yadav has been declared its CM face. 

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This year's Bihar elections will witness the clash of as many as five alliances. The ruling JDU-BJP is contesting along with Mukesh Sahni's VIP and former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular), while LJP has decided to go solo. The Mahagathbandhan led by RJD has lost many key allies and is contesting with Congress and three left parties.

On 28 September, Pappu Yadav who is eyeing a comeback in politics of Bihar stitched an alliance of his party Jan Adhikar Party (JAP) with Chandrashekhar Azad's Azad Samaj Party', MK Faizi's Social Democratic Party and Bahujan Mukti Party. They named it the Progressive Democratic Alliance (PDA). On the other side, confident after his party's victory in byelections, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi has teamed up with Upendra Kushwaha-led RLSP, Mayawati's BSP, Devendra Yadav's SJDD, and SBSP as the 'Grand Democratic Secular Front' to contest the upcoming polls.

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Bihar elections 2020

The Bihar Assembly has a strength of 243 members out of which 38 seats are reserved for SC and two for ST. In the 2015 state polls, the Mahagatbandhan comprising RJD, JD(U) and Congress won a whopping majority with 178 seats under the leadership of Nitish Kumar. On the other hand, the BJP-led alliance won from only 58 constituencies. On July 26, 2017, Nitish Kumar stepped down as the CM citing irreconcilable differences with RJD over corruption allegations against Tejashwi Yadav and joined hands with its former ally BJP. The upcoming Assembly election will be held in three phases - October 28, November 3, and November 7. The counting of votes will take place on November 10.

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