As many as 1,463 candidates will test their political merits on Tuesday when 94 out of a total of 243 seats in the Bihar Assembly go to polls. These constituencies are spread across 17 districts. This could be the most crucial phase of the Bihar Assembly election as the fates of some of the greatest leaders will be decided by voters on November 3.
These include Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leaders Tejashwi Yadav and Tej Pratap. The brothers are sons of two former Chief Ministers; Laloo Prasad Yadav and Rabri Devi. While Tejashwi will contest from Vaishali’s Raghopur constituency, Tej Pratap will contest from Hasanpur. While the BJP has pitched Satish Kumar opposite Tejaswi, Tej Pratap is pitted against Raj Kumar Ray of Janata Dal (United), a two-time MLA.
Meanwhile, Tej Pratap’s father-in-law Chandrika Rai who switched over to the JD (U) is up against RJD’s Chhotelal Rai in Parsa. Meanwhile, another heated electoral battle is expected in JD (U)’s Shravan Kumar and Congress’s Gunjan Patel in Nalanda.
Altogether, the RJD has 56 candidates in the fray in this phase, while other members of the Grand Alliance or Mahagathbandhan contesting as follows:
Congress 24 seats
Communist Party of India (Marxist – Leninist) CPI (ML) 6 seats
CPI 4 seats
CPI (M) 4 seats
The break up for the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) is as under:
BJP 46 seats
JD (U) 43 seats
Vikassheel Insan Party (VIP) 5 seats
Other major alliances include the Upendra Kushwaha led Grand Secular Democratic Front that includes Kushwaha’s own Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP), Asauddin Owaisi’s All India All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Samajwadi Party (Democratic), and Democratic Party (Socialist). This is a new alliance that was announced in early October.
The other major alliance of Dalit-Bahujans-Muslims if the Progressive Democratic Alliance (PDA) between Pappu Yadav’s Jan Adhikar Party (JAP) and Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan’s AzadSamaj Party (ASP). Meanwhile, it is unwise to completely write off the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) led by Chirag Paswan who broke away from the NDA recently.
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