The former JNU student is currently lodged in Guwahati Central Jail. He is imprisoned since January 2020 under sedition and UAPA charges.
NEW DELHI — Prominent student activist and a boisterous voice against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC), Sharjeel Imam, is reportedly planning to contest the upcoming Bihar assembly elections scheduled for October-November 2025.
Imam is currently lodged in Guwahati Central Jail in Assam. He has been imprisoned since January 2020 under sedition and UAPA charges.
The former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student, who hails from Kako village in Bihar’s Jehanabad district, intends to run as an independent candidate from the Bahadurganj constituency in Kishanganj district, media reports said on Wednesday.
The seat is held by Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Mohammad Anzar Nayeemi, who captured it in 2020, representing the All India Majlis e Ittehadul Muslimeen. Nayeem has since aligned with the RJD.
Imam’s candidature is expected to attract significant national attention and controversy, especially given the political sensitivity of the Kishanganj region.
Imam was arrested during the nationwide protests against CAA and the NRC, with Delhi Police alleging that his speeches ignited protests at Jamia Millia Islamia University and contributed to tensions preceding the largely anti-Muslim Northeast Delhi riots in 2020. Imam was booked in multiple cases related to these incidents.
Imam also took part in the Shaheen Bagh protest, a notable 100-day peaceful sit-in in New Delhi against the CAA. Despite facing multiple sedition and UAPA charges, he has obtained bail in six separate cases.
Writing from jail last year, Imam expressed that while he anticipated imprisonment for protesting, he did not expect to be branded a “terrorist,” especially since the riots occurred after his arrest. He accused the government of using severe measures to suppress dissent.
His bail plea in the Delhi violence conspiracy case under UAPA has been pending for two years and nine months in the Delhi High Court. Over the past three years, there have been 70 hearings regarding his bail plea, with seven different benches hearing the case. Three judges have even recused themselves.
The 35-year-old Imam is believed to be the pioneer of the Shaheen Bagh protest. He is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, a software engineer, and a prolific writer. At the time of his arrest, he was a research scholar at JNU.
Several United Nations rights experts have called for the release of Imam and other anti-CAA protestors, saying that their arrests seem “clearly designed to send a chilling message…that criticism of government policies will not be tolerated.”
