Union minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Giriraj Singh on Friday said the victory of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, or AIMIM, in the Bihar Assembly bye-elections was a win for “Jinnah ideology”, and a “threat to the social integrity” of the state.

The AIMIM’s Qamrul Hoda defeated Sweety Singh of the Bharatiya Janata Party by 10,204 votes in Kishanganj, ensuring that the party will enter the Bihar Assembly for the first time. The Kishanganj Assembly seat fell vacant after Javed Alam of the Congress was elected to Parliament in May. It was one of the 51 Assembly constituencies across India where bye-polls were held on Monday. The saffron party won 17 of them but suffered setbacks in Gujarat and Bihar, where it lost four of the five Assembly seats that went to the polls.

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“In the Bihar bye-polls, the most dangerous election verdict has come out from Kishanganj,” Singh tweeted. “Owaisi’s party AIMIM has a Jinnah ideology. They hate ‘Vande Mataram’. They pose a threat to the social integrity of Bihar. The people of Bihar should think about their future.”

The AIMIM also has two members in the Lok Sabha, seven seats in the Telangana Assembly, and two legislators in Maharashtra, where it won Malegaon Central and Dhule City.


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