For the upcoming Bihar State Elections, AIMIM have announced they'll be contesting 50 seats out of the total 243.

Many people have reservations with regards to this & some believe this gives credence to the idea that MIM is a vote cutter.

Here are my thoughts.

To begin with, if Muslims hope to become a political force to be reckoned with then it requires for us to think decades into the future.

Right now, the extent of our thought & planning is restricted to only the upcoming election in which we vote for the party that is "Not BJP".

But this just keeps us voting simply to keep BJP at bay because we "do not have an alternative" rather than voting for someone that'll actually work for our needs & voice our concerns.

However, when we do have such a candidate, we have the pointless confusion of deciding whether someone is "winnable" or a so called "vote cutter".

And herein lies the problem, we think that candidates should only stand in an election if they're sure of winning. Otherwise we declare them vote cutters.

Regarding "winnable candidates". It simply betrays our complete ignorance of how politics works.

EVERY candidate takes a risk. No politician will ever be 100% sure of winning unless he's Rahul Gandhi in Wayanad (Now even he wont be so sure)

Regarding "vote cutters", I believe it is a dog whistle to paint only & only Muslim parties as malicious schemers working in cahoots with fascists & not the "secular" parties who have nurtured said fascists for the last few decades.

If we continue to perpetuate this idea of only contesting when sure of winning then we will never have the proportionate political representation we seek.

We're too scared of losing. That makes us too quick to judge & dismiss new candidates who'll actually give a damn about us.

We need an attitude change, we need to stop being held hostage by our own fears & fears which are sown by those with vested interests.

We need to learn to give Muslim candidates a chance. If they lose, we analyze the margin by which they lost. We do the same if they win.

But here's the thing. We will NEVER know these margins & possibilities if we forever quake in fear.

This is why AIMIM fielding 50 candidates in Bihar is not a bad idea as most of you think.

It would be naive to think they plan to win all 50. But this election cycle will give them information of where exactly they win/lose & most importantly, by what margin.

If they manage to win even 5 seats in Muslim dominated constituencies by a good margin then I would consider it a success.

It'll give them an idea of where they stand, how much & where they need to work **for the next election cycle**

Which is basically how parties grow into dominant political players. It takes MULTIPLE elections (read decades) to become a force to be reckoned with.

They dont become successes in a single election.

In conclusion, Indian Muslims must plan decades into the future if we ever hope to have independent proportionate political representation.

We must not give in to propaganda that seeks to disenfranchise only & only Muslim parties by portraying them as having ill-intent.

I'll leave you with something my brother told me @asadowaisi said,

"Pehla election haarne ke liye hota hai, dusra haraane ke liye aur teesra jeetne ke liye"

"The first election is for losing, the second for defeating & the third for winning"

I've been working on this for some time so thank you for reading till the end.

If you found it of value then don't forget to share this thread :)

As always I'd love to listen to what you think, especially if you disagree.

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