PATNA, Nov 5: The stage is set for the crucial first phase of the Assembly elections in Bihar on Thursday, as 3.75 crore voters will decide the electoral fate of 1,314 candidates, including top leaders such as INDIA bloc’s Chief Ministerial face Tejashwi Yadav and Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary of the BJP.
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Yadav aims at a hat-trick in Raghopur, while his principal challenger Satish Kumar of the BJP had defeated his mother Rabri Devi in 2010 while contesting on a JD(U) symbol.
The seat was expected to witness a high-voltage contest, with Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor declaring that he wanted to take on Yadav on his home turf.
However, Kishor decided not to contest, and his party gave a ticket to a less fancied candidate Chanchal Singh.
In adjoining Mahua, Yadav’s estranged elder brother Tej Pratap, who has floated his own outfit Janshakti Janata Dal, is locked in a multi-cornered contest.
The elder son of RJD president Lalu Prasad seeks to wrest the seat from sitting RJD MLA Mukesh Raushan, though the presence of Sanjay Singh, the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) candidate who represents the NDA, and Independent Ashma Parveen, the runner-up of 2020, has queered the pitch.
Several Ministers in the Nitish Kumar Government, including Deputy Chief Ministers Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha, will also have their electoral fates decided in the first phase of polls.
Sinha hopes to retain Lakhisarai for the fourth consecutive term, surmounting the not-so-formidable challenge provided by Amresh Kumar of the Congress and Suraj Kumar of the Jan Suraaj Party.
Choudhary, who is enjoying his second consecutive term in the legislative council, is contesting a direct election after about a decade from Tarapur.
His victory is bound to cement his position in a party which he joined less than a decade ago, but where his political stock has risen rapidly.
The former State BJP president faces a stiff challenge from RJD’s Arun Kumar Sah, who had lost the seat in 2020 by a thin margin of about 5,000 votes.
Somewhat similar to Choudhary’s case is that of Mangal Pandey, a Minister and a former State BJP president who is contesting from Siwan, the first instance of his fighting an Assembly election.
Pandey, who has been an MLC since 2012, faces a formidable adversary in RJD’s Awadh Bihari Chaudhary, a former Assembly Speaker who has been a several-term MLA from the seat.
The neighbouring seat of Raghunathpur is being keenly watched because of Osama Shahab, the 31-year-old son of deceased gangster-turned-politician Mohd Shahabuddin, a several-term MP from Siwan who was known as the “uncrowned king” of the area.
Osama’s candidature has been latched onto by the NDA, which cites it as proof that the RJD stood for “return of jungle raj”, and BJP leaders like Himanta Biswa Sarma have even pointed out that the name reminded one of slain terrorist Osama Bin Laden.
Other seats and candidates whose performance would be keenly watched are young folk singer Maithili Thakur (BJP-Aliganj) and Bhojpuri superstars Khesari Lal Yadav (RJD-Chhapra) and Ritesh Pandey (Jan Suraaj Party – Kargahar). (PTI)
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