Caste equation holds key in five seats in Bihar

Mangal, Begusarai, Samastipur, Ujjalpur and Darbhanga are scheduled to vote in the fourth phase of Lok Sabha elections in Bihar on May 13, where 56 candidates are in the fray. ing. The contestants are campaigning keeping in mind the caste balance that is known to influence elections in Bihar.

from Munger, Former Janata Dal (United) president Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lallan Singh, a sitting MP and close aide of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, is contesting against the bill. Mahagathbandhan Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) candidate Anita Kumari Mahato.

Mahato, 45, got married to Ashok Mahato, 57, the main perpetrator of the Nawada jailbreak and Apsad massacre cases, which gave her a ticket to the election campaign. Mahto was unable to contest the election because he had served 17 years in prison.

In 2019, Lallan defeated the wife of opposition Congress candidate Nilam Devi. Baahubali (Influential person) Anant Singh. Both Lallan and Devi are from the upper caste Bhumihar community. This time, the opposition RJD has fielded Ms. Anita, an OBC candidate, aiming to capture communal votes as well as those of the Extremely Backward Classes (EBC) and Muslims.

in Begusarai, Giriraj Singh, the firebrand Bharatiya Janata Party leader and union minister, Mahagathbandhan CPI candidate Awadesh Kumar Rai.

In 2019, Singh defeated CPI candidate and former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union president Kanhaiya Kumar, also from Begusarai, by a margin of over 400,000 votes. In this election, RJD fielded Tanvir Akhtar and cut into Kumar’s vote share.

Begusarai is a left-wing bastion and was once known as the “Leningrad of Bihar”. This constituency has a significant number of Bhumihar voters. However, Muslims, Yadavs (OBCs) and EBCs play an important role in deciding the fate of the contestants. Mr. Yadav is the CPI candidate and is expected to face a tough battle against Mr. Singh.

This slogan is being circulated among the Bhumihar tribe to which Singh belongs.Giriraj majiboori hai, lekin modi jalli hai. (Giriraj is compulsory, but Modi is necessary).”

Samastipur The state is a Lok Sabha by-election constituency, where Sambhavi Chaudhary (25), the youngest Dalit state candidate of Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), is competing against Congress candidate Sunny Hazari (25). 33). Both are from the South Carolina community. They are the children of ministers in the Nitish Kumar-led cabinet.

However, Maheshwar Hazari, who is also a former deputy speaker of the state Congress, said he was not campaigning for his son and would work with the chief minister. Ashok Chaudhary is campaigning for his daughter Sambhavi.

In the last Lok Sabha elections, Prince Raj, nephew of the then United Lok Janshakti Party leader Ram Vilas Paswan, won by defeating Congress candidate Ashok Kumar by a margin of over 100,000 votes. However, the party split after Paswan’s death in October 2020. When the BJP entered into a seat-sharing agreement with the LJP (Ram Vilas) for the 2024 elections and the party won five seats, including Samastipur, Mr. Raj was defeated and Mr. Sambhavi became the surprise candidate. Nominated.

Both Sunny and Sambavi are expected to put up a tough fight, highlighting problems of underdevelopment and repeated flooding.

in Darbhangathe Bharatiya Janata Party has abandoned its faith in the sitting MP Gopalji Thakur. Mahagathbandhan The candidate is RJD’s Lalit Yadav. In the last election, Thakur had defeated RJD candidate Abdul Bari Siddiqui by a margin of over 250,000 votes.

Yadav is an RJD MLA from Darbhanga district assembly seat and has been a leader for many years. In July 2000, he was a minister in the RJD government led by Lalu Prasad and was accused of pulling out the nails of Dalit truck drivers and vehicle cleaners. He was infamously dubbed the “Monster of Bihar” by the media.

On May 4, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a public rally in support of Thakur in Darbhanga. The constituency has Brahmin voters as well as a sizeable number of Yadav and Muslim voters who could influence the poll results.

inside Ujjalpur The Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded MP and Union Home Minister Nityanand Rai in the Lok Sabha constituency. Mahagathbandhan Candidate Alok Mehta (RJD). In the 2019 elections, Rai defeated Upendra Kushwaha of the now-defunct Rashtriya Lok Samata Party by a margin of over 270,000 votes. Kushwaha’s party, now renamed Rashtriya Lok Morcha, is contesting elections from the Karakat seat.

RJD’s Mehta is an MLA from Ujjalpur Assembly seat and has been a minister in the Assembly several times. Mahagathbandhan government. He is said to be a founding member of RJD and the political mentor of Tejashwi Yadav. Both Mr. Rai and Mr. Mehta are from his OBC community and are considered respectful leaders.

While Rai has emphasized Modi’s “magic” and the NDA government’s welfare schemes, Mehta has been campaigning against “the Modi government’s lies and propaganda”.