Sharjeel Imam withdraws from Bihar polls, cites rejection of bail

Activist Sharjeel Imam will not contest the Bihar Assembly elections as an independent candidate, his brother Muzammil Imam posted on social media on Friday.

The former Jawaharlal Nehru University student said that the main reason for his decision was that the Delhi High Court rejected his bail petition on September 2, and the Supreme Court did not grant him interim relief.

“The matter has been postponed to late October,” the activist said. “We expected that I will be out on bail by the time of election.”

We, my team and I, have decided not to contest the Bihar elections 2025. The main reason for this decision is that my bail was rejected by the Delhi High Court (2 Sep, 2025), and even though we moved to Supreme Court immediately (9 Sep, 2025), we failed to get interim relief. The… pic.twitter.com/yafMKYSKiW— Muzzammil Imam | مزمل إمام (@imammuzzammil) October 17, 2025

The polls in Bihar will take place in two phases on November 6 and November 11, and the votes will be counted on November 14.

Imam had said that he would contest from the Bahadurganj constituency in Kishanganj district.

On Friday, however, he said that the state had “put hurdles on our path”, because of which he would not be able to personally campaign and meet voters in the constituency.

“We did anticipate...

Read more