A lot of confusion prevails in the minds of voters of the four Lok Sabha seats going to polls in the first phase on Friday as in these constituencies the cast for caste has been the pattern for decades and development is a non-issue as was put once by Bihar's political stalwart former Chief Minister Lalu Prasad "there is no connection between politics and development".
Interestingly Chirag Paswan who leads the LJP now is sitting MP from Jamui and has changed his constituency this time to "safer" LJP's years of dominance to Hajipur near Patna. Jamui has been now assigned to a family member of the Paswans, Arun Bharti who is heads on with INDIA Bloc's RJD leader Archana Ravidas.
Chirag has twice represented Jamui in the Lok Sabha.
It's from Jamui where Prime Minister Narendra Modi kicked-off his election campaign in Bihar on April 4 followed by a public meeting in Nawada on April 7 and then at Gaya early this week.
This general elections as per the arrangements either the seats have been changed or first timers like Vivek Thakur, son of Bihar BJP's stalwart former Union Minister CP Thakur, Arun son-in-law of late Ram Vilas Paswan are on the battlefield with their bowlers from particular sections. Vivek is a sitting Ràjya Sabha member from the BJP and is trying his luck in the upper caste Bhumiar dominated constituency of Nawada near Gaya.
In the seven-phase Lok Sabha election in Bihar, which sends 40 MPs to Parliament, the four constituencies of Aurangabad, Gaya, Jamui and Nawada will vote in the first phase on April 19. Another turncoat tagged, former Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Majhi, is contesting from Gaya as part of the NDA's seating arrangements.
The outgoing Lok Sabha has all four seats from NDA viz Aurangabad (BJP), Gaya (JDU), LJP from both Jamui and Nawada. In the 2024 LS while the BJP had their candidates in Rajput dominated Aurangabad and Bhumihar dominated Nawada constituencies, while two reserved seats Gaya went to its ally HAM and Jamui to another alliance partner, the Chirag Paswan-led LJP.
Three-time MP from Aurangabad Sushil Kumar Singh stands against RJD's Abhay Kushwaha.
Kushwaha was a JD(U) MLA from the Tekari Assembly constituency in 2015 but recently joined the RJD and was given the party's ticket from the Aurangabad Lok Sabha constituency. The seat is Rajput-dominated though it has a sizeable OBC and EBC voters hence the RJD has fielded an OBC candidate. The poll is to be interesting as four of six Assembly constituencies of Aurangabad — Kutumba, Rafiganj, Aurangabad, and Gurua — are held by Mahagathbandhan MLAs, while the remaining two — Imamganj and Tekari — are held by HAM, an ally of NDA.
Aurangabad was once represented by Union Minister Giriraj Singh but in the 2019 general election, the seat was won by then united LJP's Chandan Singh. This time, the Nawada seat has fallen to the BJP under the NDA's seat-sharing arrangements, and the party has fielded Vivek Thakur.
In Nawada, BJP's Vivek Thakur cannot ride on the name of "Modi" as he faces a tough fight against Shrawan Kushwaha, the OBC Mahagathbandhan candidate, and Independent candidates Vinod Yadav and Bhojpuri singer Gunjan Singh as his opponents.
In his poll campaigns, Shrawan Kushwaha has underlined the "lack of development, industry, and good hospital facilities and schools" in the constituency.
From the Jamui (reserved) seat, LJP Arun Bharti is the NDA candidate against INDIA Bloc's Archana Ravidas on the RJD ticket. Ravidas is wife of local RJD leader Mukesh Yadav, and is contesting the Lok Sabha election for the first time.
From Gaya 80-year-old Jitan Ram Manjhi is pitted against RJD's Kumar Sarvajeet of the RJD who is sitting MLA from Bodh Gaya and a former State Agriculture and Tourism Minister.
With over 30 per cent of the voters in the Gaya Lok Sabha constituency belonging to the SC, Mayawati's BSP has also fielded its candidates from Gaya as well as Jamui which also has sizeable minorities vote.
