Bihar Assembly Election 2020: RJD bastion set for triangular contest

All eyes in Bihar on Tuesday will likely be skilled on one meeting constituency specifically — Raghopur in Vaishali district. This is the place the political inheritor to Rashtriya Janata Dal founder Lalu Prasad and the occasion’s chief ministerial candidate Tejashwi Yadav, is combating for re-election to the House.

For the 31-year-old, the stakes are excessive. It’s a status battle for Yadav; dropping the seat will diminish his stature because the chief and star campaigner of the Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) comprising the RJD, Congress and left events searching for to finish the 15-year reign of chief minister Nitish Kumar. Locals say it’s in no way a cakewalk for the RJD scion, who’s in a triangular contest towards candidates of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) .

The BJP’s Satish Kumar, who had misplaced to Yadav within the 2015 election after successful the seat in 2010 from his mom, is again within the fray towards the chief of the opposition, whom he accuses of neglecting the constituency and doing little by the use of its growth, a key BJP plank within the three-phase polls. “It’s a tight fight and the result could throw up a surprise. Much would depend on how Yadavs vote…. Rajput votes are also crucial,” mentioned Arjun Rai, a resident of Bidupur, half of the Raghopur constituency. Located throughout the Ganga in Vaishali district, Raghopur has been an RJD bastion for the reason that mid-1990s; Lalu Prasad represented the seat in 1995 and 2000 and his spouse Rabri Devi from 2005 to 2010. In 2010, Rabri Devi misplaced the seat to BJP’s Satish Kumar, additionally a Yadav. In 2015, Kumar misplaced to Tejashwi Yadav.

The RJD can also be frightened about its organisational base being weak within the constituency this time due to the latest defection of former MLA Uday Narayan Rai– an in depth confidant of jailed RJD chief Lalu Prasad– to the ruling JD(U) — a BJP ally. Rai is taken into account a distinguished Yadav face within the constituency.

Poll managers of BJP candidate Satish Kumar say they’re unfazed by Yadav’s try to rally round his neighborhood because the RJD’s CM candidate.

“Has Tejashwi worked for the constituency in the last five years?…There was big work in the constituency on the power and education front and healthcare during NDA’s rule,” mentioned Ganesh Rai, a ballot supervisor and BJP chief of Raghopur.

The BJP has deployed a few of its heavyweights within the marketing campaign for Kumar with defence minister Rajnath Singh addressing a rally on Friday. Poll permutations of each RJD and BJP have suffered a setback due to the LJP fielding a Rajput candidate, Rakesh Roshan, who can divide the essential Rajput votes. “Voting in the constituency is always on caste lines . This time, there is a triangular fight but the LJP can only cut the votes of both the RJD and BJP,” mentioned Randhir Kumar, a political observer.