PATNA : The fourth phase of Lok Sabha election in Bihar will decide the fate of not only the veterans of several electoral battles but also of those making debut in politics. Two Union ministers, Giriraj Singh and Nityanand Rai, are locked in a neck-to-neck fight in their respective constituencies this time.
Five Lok Sabha constituencies, namely Darbhanga, Ujiarpur, Samastipur, Begusarai and Munger will go to polls scheduled to be held on May 13.
Giriraj Singh, known to be the BJP’s firebrand leader, is contesting election from Begusarai yet one more time. He is pitted against former MLA and CPI candidate Awadhesh Kumar Rai. Singh is seeking a re-election from the seat.
Begusarai Lok Sabha constituency is a stronghold of upper caste Bhumihars. Most candidates who have won from Begusarai belonged to Bhumihar caste, including Giriraj Singh, who had defeated CPI candidate Kanhaiya Kumar by a margin of 4.2 lakh votes in the 2019 election.
Similarly, Union Minister of State for Home and senior BJP leader Nityanand Rai is trying his luck from Ujiarpur seat again. While seeking votes for him recently, Union Home Minister Amit Shah called Rai his ‘jigri’ (favourite) and promised to make him a ‘bada aadmi’ (big man) in future.
He is locked in a direct contest with senior RJD leader and former minister Alok Kumar Mehta, considered close to RJD supremo Lalu Prasad. However, Rai who had won Lok Sabha election twice in 2014 and 2019, is facing anti-incumbency.
The seat has been held by the National Democratic Alliance ever since it was created after delimitation in 2008. In the 2009 election, Ashwamedh Devi of JD(U) had won the election by defeating Alok Kumar Mehta.
Rai is now trying to make a hat-trick from Ujiarpur. The seat has a strong Yadav voter base, a community Rai belongs to. Apart from Yadavs, the constituency also has a good population of upper castes, Kushwahas, SCs, particularly Paswans and Maha Dalits.
Similarly, BJP MP Gopal Jee Thakur is contesting election from Darbhanga. A PhD holder, Thakur is pitted against senior RJD leader and former minister Lalit Yadav, a postgraduate in Sociology from Lalit Narayan Mithila University. Yadav is known for his muscle power in the region. RJD had last won this seat in 2004 by defeating BJP’s Kirti Azad.
In Samastipur seat reserved for Scheduled Castes, the son and daughter of two JD(U) leaders are pitted against each other. Bihar’s rural works minister Ashok Choudhary’s daughter Shambhavi Choudhary is contesting election on a ticket from the LJP (Ram Vilas). She is pitted against Congress nominee Sunny Hazari, son of senior JD(U) minister Maheshwar Hazari.
Recently, Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) president Nitish Kumar had warned his cabinet colleague Hazari against seeking votes for his son. In an election rally addressed by Kumar in Samastipur constituency, Hazari was not even present.
From Munger constituency, former JD(U) president Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh is pitted against RJD candidate Kumari Anita, wife of muscleman Ashok Mahto. Singh, who defeated Congress’ Nilam Devi in 2019 elections, is eyeing his fourth win from Munger.
Lalan Singh had first won the election from the Munger seat in 2009 but lost to LJP leader Veena Devi in 2014.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has held election rallies in Munger and Darbhanga recently and appealed to voters to vote for NDA candidates in the ongoing elections in the state.
All the five seats where elections are due to be held on May 13 are held by the NDA — three of them by BJP and one each by JD(U) and LJP (Ram Vilas).
“For RJD, there is nothing to lose in this phase. But for NDA, its prestige is at stake as all the five seats going to polls in this phase are held by it,” said a political analyst, Pramod Kumar.
Bihar has 40 Lok Sabha seats. Elections were earlier held in Aurangabad, Gaya, Nawada and Jamui in the first phase; Purnea, Bhagalpur, Katihar, Kishanganj and Banka in the second, and Madhepura, Araria, Supaul, Khagaria and Jhanjharpur in the third.