The political fate of lJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan, RJD strongman Prabhunath Singh, BJP’s hi-flying candidate Rajiv Pratap Rudy and lalu’s better half Rabri Devi will be decided when polling on seven seats would be held in the crucial fifth phase in Bihar on Wednesday. In the 2009 polls, the ruling party JD(U) had won five seats with RJD securing the leftover.
The seven constituencies which are going to polls in this phase are Hajipur, Saran, Maharajganj, Sheohar, Sitamarhi, Muzaffarpur and Ujjiyarpur.On all the seats, the BJP candidates are riding on NaMo wave and appearing to be in direct contest with the candidates of other parties but the battle of Saran and Hajipur has been drawing wide attention.In the caste cauldron of Saran, Rajiv Pratap Rudy of the BJP is engaged in a fierce battle with RJD’s Rabri Devi from where her husband and party MP has been fighting the prestige battle for the last two consecutive terms. Prasad, along with his elder daughter Misa Bharti and younger son Tejashwi Yadav, has been campaigning hard braving sultry summer heat and dust of village lanes.
In a bid to retain his stronghold on Saran seat, lalu Prasad is not leaving any stone unturned and any local Yadav leader unmet. He has visited them personally and apparently trying to fix any gap found in his formidable vote bank. Till late at night, he along with his wife Rabri Devi, sweats out on the bumpy roads of the constituency and if officials stop him for checking the candidates’ vehicle, he loses his cool and reportedly threatens them to beat with his slippers.
BJP candidate Rudy, popularly known as hi-flying politician in the constituency, had been giving tough contest to lalu Prasad on this seat. He has been riding on NaMo wave to garner support of upper caste Rajput votes in his favour. He is also eyeing a major dent into EBC votes of Nitish Kumar and if it happens Rudy may sail through this time.
Here in Saran constituency, both Yadav and Rajput voters are numerically divided in equal number and it has been the votes of either the Muslims or the EBC which would decide the fate of the candidates.However, with lJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan in the NDA camp, Rudy could hope for a sizeable chunk of EBC votes and Dalit votes in his favour which could upset lalu’s applecart this time.
The JD(U) has fielded a Muslim candidate, Salim Pravej, which apparently is the cause of worry for the RJD candidate as in several other constituencies Muslims are voting for the RJD to stall NaMo wave. “The result if Saran depends largely on the preference of Muslims,” said the local voters.
Similar is the fate of Ram Vilas Paswan that hangs in balance in Hajipur (reserved) constituency from where he is again pitted against non-agenarian JD(U) candidate Ram Sundar Das and Sanjiv Prasad Toni of the Congress.Paswan has already won lok Sabha polls from Hajipur constituency and has even made record of highest winning margin but in last Parliamentary polls he had lost to JD(U) candidate Ram Sundar Das. Das, is one of the oldest candidates contesting poll in the country and this time he is facing a strong anti-incumbency in his constituency.
The fight in Hajipur is mainly between RJD supported Congress candidate Sanjiv Prasad Toni and BJP-backed lJP candidate Ram Vilas Paswan.With NaMo factor reeling in his favour, Paswan is appearing to be safe but the M-Y calculus of lalu Prasad is proving a stumbling block for him. lJP chief’s son, Chirag Paswan, who had contested from Jamui, is campaigning hard in Hajipur.
Another important seat is Maharajganj, where the RJD strongman is contesting against BJP’s Janardan Singh Sigriwal and JD(U)’s controversial candidate Manoranjan Singh alias Dhumal Singh. Several cases are pending against Dhumal Singh and the JD(U) might have pitted him to counter the strongman Prabhunath Singh’s bahubal in the constituency. The sitting MP Prabhunath Singh has been spewing venom against Nitish Kumar and has reportedly vowed that after the poll he would make Nitish Government fall in the State.
like Rudy, BJP candidate in the neighboring constituency Janardan Singh Sigriwal, too is hoping to throw a surprising result. He holds a good image in the area but his political stature is not that of a Parliamentary poll and that too to contest against heavyweight RJD candidate Prabhunath Singh for whom the MY block of the party along with his Rajput votes may make an easy way to the Parliament once again.
In Muzaffarpur, the contest is between the BJP candidate Ajay Nishad and Akhilesh Singh of the Congress. The Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Monday had addressed a rally in Muzaffarpur while appealing votes for the party candidate Akhilesh Singh. The JD(U) has fielded the local leader Vijendra Chaudhury.
In the last lok Sabha polls, the BJP leader Capt Jai Narayan Nishad had won the election from here but this time he chose to field his son in his place, apparently, to bag the seat in his pocket during NaMo wave reeling in the State. The constituency has upper caste Bhumihar, Yadav, Muslim and EBC voters in sizeable number. The RJD backed Congress candidate Akhilesh Singh is banking on upper caste Bhumihar and RJD’s MY chemistry to sail through, however, the JD(U) candidate Vijendra Chaudhury is giving them stiff challenge in the name of development works done by Nitish Kumar Government.
In Naxal affected Sheohar constituency, the BJP candidate Rama Devi is facing tough contest from Samajwadi Party candidate lovely Anand, Shahid Ali Khan of JD(U) and Mohd Anawarrul Haque of the RJD. lovely Anand is wife of incarcerated strongman Anand Mohan Singh and for her the SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son Akhilesh Yadav too had come for campaigning to woo Yadav voters. In this four cornered contest, the BJP candidate Rama Devi is appearing to have an edge over others.
Similarly in Ujjiyarpur, it seems to be a four-cornered contest with an edge to RJD candidate Alok Mehta. The BJP has pitted a strongman party MlA Nityanand Rai whereas the JD(U) has fielded sitting MP Ashwamedh Devi. The CPM candidate Ramdeo Verma in the fray, though, is making the battle a four-cornered. In the last poll JD(U) candidate Ashwamedh Devi with BJP support had defeated the RJD candidate Alok Mehta with a thin margin but Mehta this time is working hard riding on his party’s revived MY chemistry.
On Sitamarhi seat, the contest is between JD(U) candidate Arjun Rai, Sitaram Yadav of RJD and Ram Kumar Sharma of RlSP. Arjun Rai had won the last lok Sabha elections with BJP support but this time he apparently is facing tough challenge from the RJD candidate Sitaram Yadav who too had earlier represented the constituency twice. The RlSP candidate is supported by BJP but looks nowhere in the poll battle here.
After the end of this fifth round of election, polling will be completed in 34 of the total 40 lok Sabha seats in Bihar. Elaborate security measures have been taken for the smooth conduct of the polls.