Campaign ends for 4 seats in Bihar going to polls on April 19

Campaign ends for 4 seats in Bihar going to polls on April 19

Campaign ended on Wednesday for four Lok Sabha seats in Bihar where voters will decide the fate of 38 candidates in the first phase of polls, scheduled on April 19.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the charge for NDA, holding three rallies, one each in Jamui, Nawada and Gaya. Union Home Minister Amit Shah addressed a rally in Aurangabad, while Defence Minister Rajnath Singh held a public meeting in Jamui.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the JD(U) president whose return to NDA a couple of months ago is said to have boosted the prospects of the BJP-led coalition, was present at the PM's Jamui and Nawada rallies.

Of the four seats, Nawada and Aurangabad are being fought by the BJP while reserved seats Jamui and Gaya have gone to alliance partners.

While Sushil Kumar Singh is seeking re-election, for a fourth consecutive term, from Aurangabad, Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Thakur is in the fray at Nawada, which the BJP has claimed back, five years after having given it to late Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party.

The late leader's son Chirag has shifted base to Jamui, passing the mantle to brother-in-law Arun Bharti. In Gaya, former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi, who heads the Hindustani Awam Morcha, hopes to enter Parliament at a ripe age, riding the NDA tailwind.

The opposition campaign, so far, has been all about a spirited canvassing by young RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, whose party is contesting all the four seats.

The RJD's candidates for all the four seats are debutantes, including former state minister Kumar Sarvajeet who hopes to win for the party Gaya, which his late father had won way back in the 1990s.

The choice of RJD candidates ran into a bit of controversy at Aurangabad, where the party ticket has gone to JD(U) turncoat Abhay Kushwaha, and Nawada, where a less fancied Shravan Kushwaha was preferred over the family of local strongman Raj Vallabh Yadav, who belongs to the dominant caste and whose wife is an MLA.

In Aurangabad, a whimper of protest was raised by former Congress MP Nikhil Kumar, who, however, backed down after the party made clear its unwillingness to confront the domineering ally.

However, in Nawada, the RJD's prospects may be affected by Binod Yadav, Raj Vallabh Yadav's younger brother who has quit the party and is contesting as an Independent.

Vexation was writ large on the face of a normally composed Tejashwi Yadav who, at a rally on the penultimate day of the campaign, warned that the family of Raj Vallabh Yadav will henceforth not be considered for an RJD ticket.

In Jamui, the RJD has fielded Archana Ravidas, the lone woman among the principal contenders for the four seats, whom the party is presenting as a ''local'' as against her rival who hails from an influential political family but has no roots in the place.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)