Four of five MLAs of the Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM joined RJD in Bihar on Wednesday, making it the largest party in the 243-strong assembly.
The development is hailed by the leader of the opposition, Tejashwi Yadav who is RJD's de facto leader.
He took the four MLAs to the assembly in a car which he drove himself, in a gesture that was rich in optics as well as symbolism.
The MLAs who have jumped ship are -- Syed Ruknuddin Ahmed (Baisi), Shahnawaz Alam (Jokihat), Mohd Izhar Asfi (Kochadhaman) and Mohd Anzar Naeemi (Bahadurganj).
Speaker Vijay Kumar Sinha was handed over a communication announcing the MLAs' desire to be treated as a separate group and its merger with the RJD, thereby raising its effective strength in the House to 80, three more than that of the BJP.
A beaming Yadav emerged from the Speaker's chamber, along with the four MLAs and old confidants, and left the assembly premises responding to congratulatory messages.
AIMIM, headed by Asaduddin Owaisi, which had made a splash by winning five seats in the assembly elections of 2020, is now left with only MLA its state president Akhtarul Iman who represents Amour.
All the five seats that the AIMIM had won fall under the Kishanganj and Araria Lok Sabha constituencies, which have the highest concentration of Muslim population in Bihar.
At a press conference organised to officially announce the development, Tejashwi Yadav underscored that all the four MLAs come from the most impoverished, flood-ravaged region of the state reeling under the apathy of a government that does not care for health, education and other types of public welfare.
Replying to a query, he, however, denied that the development hinted towards a planned operation by the RJD to raise its stock in Bihar which it has ruled for long and where it shows signs of resurgence after a lean patch.
In the last assembly polls, the RJD had won 75 seats, emerging as the single largest party. It won another seat earlier this year when it snatched Bochahan from the NDA in a by-election.
"We want all secular forces to come together and become stronger. And RJD's role in the fight against communalism cannot be overstated. It is because of us that in Bihar the BJP has never mustered the courage to contest an election on its own", said Yadav.
"The NDA may have been able to achieve power in Bihar by unscrupulous means but look at the BJP here. It is bearing with a Chief Minister whose party is a distant third in terms of numbers", said the RJD leader, referring to the JD(U) which has less than 50 MLAs.
(With inputs from PTI)
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