Former Union minister Mohammad Taslimuddin, who was for long the RJD’s prominent Muslim face in Bihar, is all set to join the state’s ruling JD(U) after a spell of political wilderness since his loss in the Lok Sabha polls to the Congress in Muslim-dominated Kishanganj.
By extending an invitation to Mr Taslimuddin to join the JD(U), chief minister and JD(U) stalwart Nitish Kumar unmistakably aims at further strengthening his party’s pro-Muslim image following the still simmering tensions with ally BJP.
Mr Taslimuddin, a three-term MP who had been an integral part of RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav’s erstwhile successful formula of the Muslim-Yadav axis in Bihar’s electoral politics, would also serve as a counter to Bihar’s resurgent Congress, which appointed Mehboob Ali Kaiser as the state president earlier this month.
Sources in the JD(U) said Mr Taslimuddin would formally join the JD(U) on July 5. He announced his decision to join the JD(U) last week and vowed to ensure the defeat of the RJD-LJP and the Congress. JD(U) leaders say the still influential leader from Bihar’s northern Seemanchal area would prove an asset for the party in the upcoming Assembly polls when all the parties would work to grab the Muslim votes.
Mr Taslimuddin was the minister of state for food and civil supplies in the first UPA government and represented the Kishanganj Lok Sabha constituency — India’s largest Muslim-populated area after the Kashmir Valley and Lakshadweep. He lost to Mohammad Asarul Haque of the Congress in the 2009 polls. He resigned as the RJD’s national vice-president and primary member in August 2009, calling the party an organisation of “sahib, biwi aur ghulam” (the master, his wife and their servants).
After quitting the RJD, Mr Taslimuddin floated a new party called Semanchal Vikas Morcha (SVM) and called for the creation of a new state called Seemanchal by carving out a few northern districts of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. But the SVM soon lost steam and Taslimuddin became almost a political non-entity in Bihar.
He is now likely to contest the Assembly polls.