PATNA, Aug. 28 -- Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor's statement on Tuesday that with the support of Muslims, his party could have a realistic chance of forming the government in Bihar underlines the importance of minority votes in the state election, as it has always been. Kishor has already announced that his party would field a significant number of Muslim candidates, around 40 in the 243-member Bihar Assembly and he sought their support again at the Muslim Ekta Sammelan. "You need to come out of the fear of the BJP, which political parties have used to treat you as a mere vote bank. With your support, we can change the Bihar regime," he added. His statement is significant, as Muslims have hitherto mostly backed the RJD and its alliance, including the Congress and the Left in Bihar, though the Muslim-Yadav factor didn't click for the Grand Alliance (GA) in 2020 in the Seemanchal region, where for the first time the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) led by Asaduddin Owaisi won five seats. RJD is working hard to make amends, but so is Owaisi trying to expand his party's footprints. Four of the AIMIM MLAs had switched over to the RJD in 2022, leaving it with just one MLA -- party's state president Akhtarul Iman. AIMIM had won two seats each in Kishanganj and Purnia districts and one in Araria district to record its best ever showing in the state in the last Assembly election, after drawing a blank in 2015. However, AIMIM paid back instantly, as RJD lost the by-poll for the Gopalganj seat in the party chief Lalu Prasad's home district by a thin margin of less than 1,800 votes a few months later. The AIMIM candidate had bagged over 12,000 votes to upset RJD's calculations and the party termed it as a "payback for the defection engineered earlier". Having not found a place in the Opposition alliance so far, which it tried for in order to dispel thinking that it was a vote splitter, the AIMIM is planning to form a third front and field candidates on close to 100 seats, which could throw new choices for Muslim voters. AIMIM influence is no more unknown in the state and now Jan Suraj is also betting big on them, knowing how key they could be. "We tried to be part of the INDIA bloc, but now there is a 90% chance that it will not work out. They are not interested. We are preparing for 70-80 seats in Bihar and it could reach 100. We will also try to have an alliance with other like-minded parties to take on the BJP. Our national party chief Asaduddin Owaisi will take a final decision," said AIMIM Bihar spokesman Adil Hasan. How it all shapes up, only time will tell, as the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's "Vote Adhikaar Yatra" across Bihar against the deletion of names from the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls is also seen as an attempt to consolidate the Muslim voters, who are perceived as the affected lot.Senior RJD leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui also courted controversy last week when he accused the BJP of trying to radicalise Hindus, while addressing a gathering. "Our Hindu brothers need to be made more aware of secularism, socialism, the Constitution, and our ancestral history. The majority community has a bigger role to play," he said, evoking backlash that he was trying to sermonise Hindus. Later, he clarified that "It's important that all religious groups understand secularism, socialism, and constitutional values, not just Hindus". For the first time, the BJP also distributed "Sougat-e-Modi" gifts to an estimated 32-lakh underprivileged Muslims across the country during Eid for image makeover. In Bihar it was turned into an event. There are also indications of a softening stance of the RSS and in neighbouring UP, the BJP experimented with over 50 seats to Pasmanda Muslims in the UP urban local bodies' election in 2023. Also in line for Muslim votes is Jan Suraj Party. Few other parties like the Bahujan Samaaj Party (BSP) are also in line to build a new front or field candidates independently. Pasmanda Muslim Samaaj national convenor and Pasmanda Mansuri Development Research Foundation (PMDRF) director Firoz Mansuri said that post Waqf Act, there was bound to be a churning in the minority votes due to gradual awakening of the Pasmanda Muslims, who constitute the bulk of the minority voters. "What Nitish Kumar has done for the minority community without getting their whole-hearted support is before everyone, while others who claimed to be their champion for their support did nothing for them. This is what has brought Nitish closer to the backward Pasmanda, backward and EBC Muslims, who constitute nearly 95% of the Muslim population in the state. The upper caste Muslims like Sheikh, Syed and Pathan constitute less than 5% votes," he added. Mansuri said that he was working on the Pasmanda Social Index, as Nitish Kumar did a huge service to Pasmanda Muslims through the caste survey....