As Lok Sabha elections enter the bigger states in the third phase on April 10, six seats in Bihar where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is hoping to put up a very good show, kick off the electoral exercise in the state.
The seats going to polls in Bihar - Sasaram, Karakat, Aurangabad, Gaya, Nawada, Jamui - are infested with Naxals and as usual they have given a call for poll boycott resulting in very low key campaigning in the rural areas of the constituencies. In a pre-election strike on Monday three CRPF personnel were killed and eight others injured when a landmine planted by Communist Party of India-Maoist exploded in Aurangabad while it was being defused.
It is a three-cornered battle between the BJP-Lok Janskati Party-Rashtriya Lok Samata Party, Janata Dal United-Communist Party of India and Rashtriya Janata Dal-Congress-Nationalist Congress Party combine. The BJP is ahead of its rivals who are fighting for their political survival.
Just like the rest of India, in Bihar, too, the BJP has made it a Narendra Modi vs all others even as Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is charting a new course after breaking the 17-year-old alliance with the former. Jailed and barred from contesting polls, RJD chief Lalu Prasad has tried to remain relevant by pushing forward his family members at the cost of old loyalists many of whom have joined the BJP and JDU. But his alliance with the Congress and NCP has seen the maverick leader become a force once again.
The elections will decide the fate of 80 candidates, including 10 women. A total of 93,29,760 voters are eligible to cast their votes which include 49,73,691 males, 43,55,752 females and 317 others.
A total of 46,000 security personnel including 22,000 home guards have been deployed for the smooth conduct of elections. They include 237 companies of armed security personnel out of which 163 are from the central paramilitary forces and 74 of the Bihar Military Police. Three helicopters from defence forces too will be in action.
In Sasaram (SC) seat, the contest is between sitting MP and Congress candidate Meira Kumar, who is the daughter of former deputy PM late Babu Jagjivan Ram, JDU's KP Ramaiah and Chedi Paswan of the BJP. Meira Kumar, the Speaker of 15th Lok Sabha, is still banking on her father's legacy and the Congress-RJD pact. KP Ramaiah, who quit the IAS to join politics, is highlighting Nitish Kumar's clean image and development work while Paswan is trying to ride the polarisation of forward castes in favour of the BJP.
One interesting aspect of the election in Sasaram has been the rejection of BSP candidate Medhavi Kirti's nomination. Kirti, the niece of Meira Kumar, is now backing the JDU.
RLSP chief Upendra Kushwaha is crossing swords with RJD's Kanti Singh and sitting JDU MP Mahabali Singh in Karakat. In this seat none of the candidates is considered a heavyweight with Kushwaha trying to ride of the Modi wave. Kanti Singh had lost the 2009 elections to Mahabali Singh, who has become unpopular because of his neglect of the constituency.
Baghi Kumar Verma of the JDU, who was previously with the RJD, is pitted against sitting MP Sushil Kumar Singh, who was expelled by the JDU and is now contesting on a BJP ticket, and Congress leader Nikhil Kumar in Aurangabad. Kumar, a former IPS officer, quit as Kerala Governor to contest again. He had lost to Singh in the last elections.
In the Gaya (SC) the fight is between three Manjhis - JDU's Jeetan Ram, BJP's sitting MP Hari and Ramjee of the RJD. In 2009 Hari Manji has defeated the RJD candidate.
Nawada will see BJP leader Giriraj Singh, who reluctantly agreed to contest from the seat after he was denied nomination from Begusarai, take on RJD's Rajballabh Yadav and JDU leader Kaushal Yadav. Giriraj Singh had made it clear that Nawada was not his first choice and only agreed to contest after the top leadership intervened.
The seat also saw Narendra Modi and Nitish Kumar in a virtual face off when the two addressed election rallies with a few hours of each other, the only instance of the duo campaigning in the same seat on the same date. In the 2009 election BJP's Bhola Singh won the seat but he is now contesting from Begusarai.
Apart from Sasaram, another star constituency is Jamui (SC) where LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan's actor-turned-politician son Chirag Paswan is involved in a tough battle against the Bihar Assembly Speaker and JDU candidate Uday Narayan Chaudhary and RJD nominee Sudhanshu Shekhar. Bhudeo Chaudhary of JDU represented the seat in the last Lok Sabha.
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