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Political prisoner and former student of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Sharjeel Imam, announced on October 17 that he will withdraw from the 2025 Bihar assembly elections.

In a statement released from prison, Imam said, “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 the Supreme Court immediately (9 Sep, 2025), we failed to get interim relief.”

Postponed until late October, he is expected to be out on bail during the time of the election.

Previously, Imam had moved a Delhi Court seeking interim bail for two weeks to contest the elections from the Bahadurganj constituency in Kishanganj district.

In the statement, Imam said that they were not “traditional politicians”, but “carriers of a new democratic message” which talks about the structural changes needed for the marginalised sections, which he said is absent from the mainstream political discourse in India.

He claimed that it was his duty as one of the few representatives of the “new emerging class of political actors” to bring awareness about the democratic message to the masses.

However, with the Court delaying his bail repeatedly, he decided to withdraw completely from the elections.

“The state has put hurdles on our path, and I’ll be unable to personally campaign and mingle freely with my constituency,” the statement read.

Imam speaks about ‘extreme restrictions’ as political prisoner

Imam also mentioned the “extreme restrictions” he faces as a political prisoner in communicating with the outside world, which ultimately hindered his campaign process, stating that one month was not sufficient.

“Our primary responsibility is spreading our message about structural change i.e, decentralisation, proportional representation as a method of election, reservation of minorities across caste groups, religious autonomy, etc. We’ll keep working towards that end. We have to force those who seek our votes to address these fundamental issues,”

He continued to thank his team and the people of Bahadurganj “who engaged with us, worked with us, expressed support and sympathy.” He also expressed gratitude to people all over the country who supported him and stood in solidarity with him

Imam in jail since January 2020

A native of Kako village in Jehanabad in Bihar, the JNU activist has been in Delhi’s Tihar Jail since January 2020, spending over five years in pre-trial detention.

Although he has been granted bail in other cases, he remains in custody due to the Delhi riots conspiracy case, in which the Delhi Police had applied the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC).