Ranchi
All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Asaduddin Owaisi is scheduled to visit Jharkhand on Tuesday to support his party’s candidate in the Dumri assembly seat by-election. The AIMIM has nominated Md Abdul Mobin Rizvi as its candidate for the Dumri bypoll, a contest seen as a showdown between the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and the BJP-backed AJSU Party. Owaisi is expected to arrive in Ranchi at around 8 pm. On the following day, he will address a public rally at the KV High School Ground in Dumri to rally support for the AIMIM candidate, stated Md Shakir, the state unit president of AIMIM. The by-election is scheduled for September 5, with vote counting slated for September 8. The poll was necessitated by the passing of JMM MLA Jagarnath Mahto, a former education minister, in April. The JMM has nominated Mahto’s wife Bebi Devi as the candidate for the INDIA bloc, while the AJSU Party has put forward Yashoda as the NDA candidate. The campaign trail is active with senior leaders of the Congress, RJD, and Chief Minister Hemant Soren supporting the JMM candidate, aiming to harness the emotional sentiment around Mahto’s demise. The NDA is focusing its campaign on criticizing the performance of the JMM-led state government. However, AIMIM’s Shakir remains optimistic, pointing to the substantial minority voter population in the constituency. Shakir emphasized, We are confident about the victory of the AIMIM candidate. Around 50 per cent of voters are Muslims, Dalits, and tribals. We are hopeful of getting their votes. He noted that the constituency holds approximately 30 per cent Muslim voters who seek substantive representation. In the previous 2019 assembly elections, Mahto secured victory over AJSU Party’s Yashoda Devi with a margin of 34,288 votes. AIMIM’s Rizvi came in fourth place with 24,132 votes. Shakir anticipates that Owaisi’s rally will invigorate the party’s workers in the region.
