Akhtarul Iman (born 7 March 1964) is an Indian politician from the state of

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West ...

. He is a member of 17th

Bihar Legislative Assembly The Bihar Legislative Assembly, also known as the Bihar Vidhan Sabha, is the lower house of the Bihar Legislature where the first elections were held in 1952. The total strength of membership in the Assembly was 331, including one nominated ...

, representing the Amour seat as MLA. He is also the Bihar State President of

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen The All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen ( en, All India Council for Unity of Muslims) ( AIMIM) is an Indian political party based primarily in the city of Hyderabad. It is also a significant political party in the States and union territorie ...

(AIMIM).

Political career

1985-2015

Akhtarul Iman said that he entered politics when he was a student. In 1985, he joined a campaign led by ''Moulana Mohammad Hai'' against burglars and

dacoit Dacoity is a term used for "banditry" in the Indian subcontinent. The spelling is the anglicised version of the Hindi word ''daaku''; "dacoit" is a colloquial Indian English word with this meaning and it appears in the ''Glossary of Colloquial ...

s. Iman said that he joined the campaign as "the police and administration were hand in glove with them." In Bihar Assembly Elections February 2005, he contested from

Kishanganj Kishanganj is a city and district headquarters of Kishanganj district in Purnia division of Bihar state. History Kishanganj, which was previously part of Purnia district, is part of the Mithila region. Mithila first gained prominence after ...

on a Rashtriya Janata Dal ticket and was elected. He also retained the seat in October 2005 election as well and remained as MLA of Kishanganj till 2010. In 2010 he was elected as MLA from Kochadhaman and resigned in 2014. In February 2013, when students were being made to do the

Yoga Yoga (; sa, योग, lit=yoke' or 'union ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India and aim to control (yoke) and still the mind, recognizing a detached witness-conscio ...

Asana of

Surya Namaskar Sun Salutation, also called Surya Namaskar(a) or Salute to the Sun (), is a practice in yoga as exercise incorporating a flow sequence of some twelve gracefully linked asanas. The asana sequence was first recorded as yoga in the early 20th centu ...

(allegedly bowing down to Hindu sun God

Surya Surya (; sa, सूर्य, ) is the sun as well as the solar deity in Hinduism. He is traditionally one of the major five deities in the Smarta tradition, all of whom are considered as equivalent deities in the Panchayatana puja and a ...

), Iman said that the government was trying to implement the

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ( ; , , ) is an Indian right-wing, Hindu nationalist, paramilitary volunteer organisation. The RSS is the progenitor and leader of a large body of organisations called the Sangh Parivar (Hindi for "Sangh family ...

(a Hindu right wing organization) ideology in the state. In 2014, he left Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and joined

Janata Dal (United) Janata Dal (United) ("People’s Party (United)”) abbreviated as JD(U) is an Indian political party with political presence mainly in eastern and north-eastern India. JD(U) is recognised as a state party in the states of Bihar , Arunachal P ...

. He contested from the

seat as JD(U) candidate for the

16th Lok Sabha Members of the 16th Lok Sabha were elected during the 2014 Indian general election. The elections were conducted in 9 phases from 7 April 2014 to 12 May 2014 by the Election Commission of India. The results of the election were declared on 16 M ...

and lost the election to Asrarul Haq Qasmi.

2015-Present

In August 2015, Iman joined

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

based

(AIMIM) and in November 2015, Iman was made a candidate for the party from the Kochadhaman seat in the

2015 Bihar Legislative Assembly election The Legislative Assembly election was held over five-phases in Bihar through October–November 2015 before the end of the tenure of the prior Legislative Assembly of Bihar on 29 November 2015. In April 2015, the Janata Parivar group (a group ...

. In the rallies, the party workers hailed him as ''Sher-e-Bihar'' (Tiger of

) and was projected as Bihar's Asaduddin Owaisi (the party's national chief). He said that if people of the Paswan and

Yadav Yadav refers to a grouping of traditionally non-elite, Quote: "The Yadavs were traditionally a low-to-middle-ranking cluster of pastoral-peasant castes that have become a significant political force in Uttar Pradesh (and other northern state ...

community (low caste Hindu communities) can have their own political parties, then Muslims should also have their own. He was also the party's president for Bihar state. However, he lost the election to Mujahid Alam of

. Iman polled 37,000 votes compared to Alam's 56,000. In the Indian general election, 2019 Iman was a candidate for the AIMIM from the

seat but he lost to Mohammad Jawed. Iman became an MLA from Amour constituency in the 2020 Bihar Legislative Assembly election.

Positions held

Akhtarul Iman has served 4 times as MLA. He had lost the assembly election from Kochadhaman in 2015 as

AIMIM The All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen ( en, All India Council for Unity of Muslims) ( AIMIM) is an Indian political party based primarily in the city of Hyderabad. It is also a significant political party in the Indian States of Telangana ...

candidate. Iman also lost the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-pas ...

election from

in 2014 and 2019.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Iman, Akhtarul Living people Bihar MLAs 2000–2005 Bihar MLAs 2005–2010 All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen politicians Rashtriya Janata Dal politicians Janata Dal (United) politicians People from Kishanganj district Bihar MLAs 2020–2025 Magadh University alumni 1964 births