Backed by the upper caste support, with an image of an honest administrator and NaMo song on the lips, former Union Home Secretary and Bihar cadre IAS officer Rajkumar Singh, popularly known as RK Singh, appears to be giving a tough fight to his rivals from the JD(U) and the RJD on Arrah lok Sabha seat. BJP prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi too had addressed a public rally in Arrah on April 10 campaigning for the BJP candidate.
People in the constituency still recall how RK Singh was involved in an uphill task of stopping BJP leader lK Advani’s rath in Samastipur, and, hence, arresting him in 1990 during Ayodhya movement.“He has been a no-nonsense officer since the beginning. He knows his responsibilities well and that is why we’re voting for him. It’s better to vote for a former bureaucrat than to a fulltime politician who never takes care of us after winning in the poll,” said Arjun Singh of Agiaon village.
RK Singh originally hails from Supaul but Arrah happens to be his wife’s hometown. He is appealing for votes and is calling himself a local and a former State road construction secretary who was instrumental in constructing smooth roads in the constituency.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had made RK Singh the State road construction department secretary and Singh was later being credited for removing all the roadblocks in the department for the smooth construction of roads in the State.
Earlier, when he retired from the post of Union Home Secretary, he reportedly was expected to join the JD(U) as an adviser to the State Government but later he decided to join the BJP to contest from the upper caste-dominated Arrah Parliamentary constituency.
He is pitted against sitting JD(U) MP Meena Singh and RJD candidate Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha. CPI-Ml candidate Raju Yadav too is in the fray but his support base is confined only to those villages where Ml has been a force since long. His party candidate, Rameshwar Prasad, had stunned everyone in 1989 lok Sabha poll when he defeated the stalwart Baliram Bhagat from the constituency.
There are altogether 12 candidates in the fray for Arrah Parliamentary seat which is going to the polls on April 17 but largely it’s a triangular contest between the BJP, RJD and JD(U) nominees.Meena Singh had defeated lJP candidate Rama Singh in 2009 lok Sabha elections by a comfortable margin of 75,000 votes. However, this time she has to grapple with upper caste voter’s wrath for not meeting their expectations and her party severed ties with BJP.
The murder of Ranvir Sena chief, Barmeshwar Mukhia, too is an election issue in Arrah as the State Government’s indifferent approach to the incident has made the upper caste Bhumihars hostile to her candidature.“We would have voted for her if she would have been a BJP candidate…although she did not visit here after winning in the last elections but otherwise she has been quite sober and decent lady,” said Pramod Singh of Jagdishpur village. “Is baar to Narendra Modi ko hi vote padega..koi candidate ko nahi,” declared a group of Rajput villagers.
Meena Singh, however, is banking on her party’s support base of other backward castes, extremely backward caste, Muslims and Mahadalits. But, the problem that haunts her is RJD candidate Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha, who is claimed to be riding on the same vote bank.“Most of the upper caste Rajputs of the constituency this time will vote for the BJP candidate RK Singh and not for Meena Singh, despite being a good candidate. Yeh to Modi leher hai is baar,” said villagers of Barhara.
The RJD candidate Bhagwan Singh Kushwaha, who was earlier in the JD(U) but deserted the party on the day when he got a RJD ticket to contest in the poll against the son-in-law of veteran CPI-Ml leader, Jagdish Master, founder of the Naxal movement in Central Bihar.
The Arrah constituency comprises seven Assembly segments of Sandesh, Shahpur, Agiaon, Arrah, Tarari, Jagdishpur and Barahara which are dominated mostly by Rajputs, Yadavas, Bhumihars, Brahmins and Kushwahas. While BJP represents Sandesh, Shahpur, Agiaon and Arrah Assembly segments, RJD has MlAs from Jagdishpur and Barhara whereas Tarari is represented by JD(U).
Meanwhile, campaigning hard in the scorching heat, RK Singh is confident of wining in the elections with a huge margin. He has been visiting remote villages for seeking support from them. “Yes, my position has further been consolidated after our Modi’s rally here...there is a huge wave in his favour and people want change this time,” he said.
However, for the people of Arrah lok Sabha constituency, the issues mainly concerned to them are bijli, sadak, paani and irrigation facilities. “These are still our main concerns that no candidate has addressed yet,” rues Om Prakash Tiwari of Karisath village. People say that even the Maoists affected villages like Tarari, Chandi, Khaira and Ekwari do not have continuous power, we would not comment on condition of other villages,” they added.
Significantly, people from Yadav and Kushwaha caste say that would vote for RJD candidate as lalu Prasad is their only leader. On asking would anyone vote for Narendra Modi this time, they denied saying not even a single person from our community will vote for Modi, they will all vote for lalu Prasad.
Meanwhile, some of the villages in the constituency like Mishraulia, Gobindpur, Marchaiya, Saiya, Ramkarhi, Pachkaudi Dera, Dalan Chhapra, lakshu Tola under Shahpur block, Jhonkhipur , Chitrasenpur and Shubhakaranganj have decided to boycott the polls due to lack of development in their villages. They have also stick posters declaring “Bijli, paani, sadak nahi, to vote nahi”.