2024-04-29 04:34:21
Begusarai: RJD supremo Lalu Yadav has cleverly changed his strategy to create a new story of victory in the Bhumihar dominated areas in the fourth phase of Lok Sabha elections. Talking about the last few elections, the opposition also used to work on the strategy of victory by fielding Bhumihar candidates in Bhumihar dominated areas. But RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav, who took charge of the India Alliance in Bihar, has surprised even the ruling party leaders by making strategic changes. In the fourth phase of elections being held in Bihar, the Grand Alliance in Begusarai and Munger has thoughtfully not given a candidate from the Bhumihar caste. In both these places, RJD supremo has given sleepless nights to NDA by fielding backward caste candidates.
Begusarai Lok Sabha
If we discuss the last few Lok Sabha elections held in Begusarai, here both the ruling party and the opposition used to make people from Bhumihar caste their candidates. Talking about the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, BJP fielded Bhola Singh, a candidate from Bhumihar caste. On the other hand, CPI fielded Rajendra Prasad Singh in the electoral battle. The result was that Bhola Singh won the election. Then Bhola Singh got 428227 votes and CPI leader Rajendra Prasad Singh got 192639 votes.
BJP changed candidates in Begusarai in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. This time BJP has fielded its fire brand leader Giriraj Singh in the election battle. The opposition fielded rising youth leader Kanhaiya Kumar in the electoral battle. BJP candidate Giriraj Singh defeated CPI’s Kanhaiya Kumar. Giriraj Singh then got 692193 votes and Kanhaiya got 269976 votes. This time in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, BJP has given ticket to Giriraj Singh but the grand alliance has fielded Awadhesh Kumar Rai of CPI who comes from Yadav caste. The RJD supremo wants to take the Begusarai fight to the stand of Bhumihar versus others.
Munger Lok Sabha seat
In Munger too, both the ruling and opposition parties often fielded candidates from the Bhumihar caste. Nitish Kumar’s party JDU had contested alone in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. JDU had given ticket to Rajeev Ranjan alias Lalan Singh, while LJP had fielded Veena Devi from NDA. LJP candidate Veena Singh won. Then Veena Singh got 352911 votes and JDU’s Lalan Singh got 243829 votes. Lalan Singh alias Rajiv Ranjan was the NDA candidate in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Then the Grand Alliance had defeated Anant Singh’s wife Neelam Devi. Rajeev Ranjan got 528762 votes and Neelam Devinko got 360825 votes. But the equation has changed in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. This time Rajiv Ranjan is going to compete with Ashok Mahato’s wife Anita Kumari Mahato. The equation here was decided keeping in mind the Aadhaar votes of MY with Kurmi Dhanuk.
What was the reason for the change?
The opposition’s continuous defeat in Begusarai and Munger Lok Sabha also forced the strategists to create new equations.
If RJD sources are to be believed, the candidate standing from Bhumihar caste kept getting very less votes from his own caste. Therefore, the strategy was to try the MY equation by fielding other castes (whose votes are one to one and a half lakh) along with the base vote. Earlier it used to be that if both NDA and opposition gave tickets from Bhumihar caste, there would be division of votes. And that would have been much less for an RJD or Grand Alliance candidate. Now that the RJD supremo has given a candidate from another big caste with the MY equation, the difficulty for the ruling party has increased.
Yadav from Begusarai and Anita Devi Mahato, daughter of Dhanuk from Munger, have been tried. In the first phase, RJD supremo in Nawada Lok Sabha has taken the election towards a very close affair by fielding Kushwaha candidate against Vivek Thakur and infiltrating the Kushwaha votes of BJP. Now the results in the coming days will reveal how effective the new equation of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav is, especially in Begusarai, Munger and Nawada Lok Sabha.