PATNA, Oct. 17 -- The ticket distribution in the JD-U has a striking feature this time. It seems to have lost confidence in Muslim candidates, despite chief minister Nitish Kumar's consistent efforts since 2005 to keep the minority community in its fold. There are just four seats going to Muslims out of 101 JD-U is contesting. Despite being mostly in the company of BJP, Nitish ensured that his secular credentials were not affected even a bit, with a slew of schemes for the minorities. But he seems to have ran out of patience this time and his party had started giving indications about it since the last Lok Sabha elections. The crucial minority votes, which are believed to be in sound numbers in almost one-fourth of Bihar assembly seats to prove game-changer, never had Nitish as the first choice in Bihar. JD-U never benefited from minority votes the way it intended to. In the 2020 Assembly election, JD-U gave 11 tickets to Muslim candidates, but none could win, while All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), led by Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, won five seats after building a momentum around protests over the Citizen Amendment Act (CAA). In 2010, JD-U gave tickets to 14 Muslim candidates and again none could win. Due to the landslide victory of the NDA in 2010, the Muslim representation in the Bihar Vidhan Sabha dropped to its lowest since 1952, as RJD performed miserably and was reduced to just 22 seats. However, in 2015, five of the seven Muslim candidates from the JD-U had won their seats. But it was the time JD-U was contesting election in alliance with the RJD and the Congress. The message was clear that the Muslim would not vote for the JD-U if it remained with the BJP. "It is a fact that Nitish tried to maintain his secular credential and also worked for them, but he was not accepted by the Muslims as the first choice due to the company of the BJP. After JD-U's stand on the contentious Waqf Amendment Act, perhaps the party also realised that it was futile to seek Muslim votes keeping in view the past track record," said social analyst Prof NK Choudhary. After row in the Bihar Assembly last year over the Waqf Bill, former MLC and senior JD-U leader Ghulaam Rasool Baliyawi had gone to the extent of saying at a function in Kishaganj that not voting for Nitish Kumar in the 2025 polls would make Muslims appear as "traitors", "as it is for the minorities to do justice with Nitish Kumar, who is secular by birth, not for votes". His statement came close on the heels of the controversy over Union minister and senior JD-U leader Rajiv Ranjan alias Lalan Singh's statement that "Muslims never voted for Nitish Kumar, who worked for all the sections in equal measure and did a lot for the minorities". "Don't be under any illusion that the minorities did not vote for Nitish earlier and now they do. They have never done it. But Nitish Kumar works for all and has drawn a big line when it comes to working for the welfare of minorities," he added. With the controversy increasing, he later said that his statement had been distorted. JD-U MP from Sitamarhi Devesh Chandra Thakur had also stoked controversy soon after elections during a "Dhanyavad Yatra" when he said that "he will not do any personal work of Muslims and Yadavs of his seat" "If the Muslims and Yadavs did not vote for arrow (JD-U poll symbol) just because they saw the face of Narendra Modi in it, ignoring the kind of work Nitish Kumar has done for all communities in equal measure, I also see the face of Lalu Prasad in lantern (RJD symbol). It pains to see this kind of mindset. After all, it takes two hands to clap," he said. When the Opposition castigated him over his remark, he also said that his words were misconstrued. Former director of AN Sinha Institute of Social Studies, DM Diwakar, said that JD-U's support to the Waqf Bill clearly came as a clear indication that the party would no more try to appease minorities, as it had also witnessed below-par performance in the 2024 LS polls. "Despite chief minister Nitish not being the first choice for Muslims in Bihar, there was a feeling in the BJP that he could split at least some secular votes, but after the Waqf Bill, that has also vanished and JD-U has truncated Muslim representation in several key seats," he added....