The AIMIM, which has been spurned by the INDIA bloc in Bihar, on Saturday said it was planning to contest around a 100 seats in the upcoming state assembly polls, five times the number it had fought in the last elections.

The party, headed by Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi, claimed that it was aiming to build a “third alternative” in Bihar, where politics has, for years, been all about the BJP-led NDA and the Congress-RJD combine. AIMIM’s state president Akhtarul Iman said, “Our plan is to contest 100 seats. Both the NDA and the Mahagathbandhan [the name by which the INDIA bloc is known in Bihar] will be forced to realise our presence.”