Bihar: All you need to know for the 4th phase of polling on 30 April

Seven of Bihar’s constituencies will go to polls tomorrow, part of the fourth of the six-phase elections in the state. Close to 1.12 crore voters will exercise their franchise in 10521 polling stations and vote for 94 candidates. The constituencies going to polls are Madhubani, Jhanjharpur, Madhepura, Darbhanga, Samastipur (SC, reserved), Begusarai and Khagaria falling in the Kosi river belt. In 2009, out of these seven constituencies going to polls on 30 April, JD(U) swept the polls and won five of these seven, except Darbhanga and Madhubani where the BJP candidates were elected. [caption id=“attachment_992431” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Having won five of the seven constituencies going to polls, tables may turn on JD(U) and Nitish Kumar. PTI[/caption] Polling will close at 4:00 PM in three Assembly segments of Mahisi in Madhepura and Simri Bhakhtiyarpur and Aluali in the Khagaria seat and end at 6:00 PM in other places. Repolling will take place in Sahebpur Kamal Assembly seat in Begusarai district. The repoll was necessitated after former minister Parveen Amanullah resigned from the Nitish Kumar cabinet and also gave up her Assembly seat to join AAP. Polling will also be held amid stringent security arrangements. Altogether 59,000 personnel of the central paramilitary forces and state police and two helicopters would be deployed during the elections. The candidates JD(U) President Sharad Yadav is seeking an eighth term to Parliament and has won four times from the Madhepura seat. Sharad Yadav faces stiff challenge from a RJD’s Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav and BJP’s Vijay Singh Kushwaha. Nestled along the Indo-Nepal border, Madhepura is the home of BP Mandal, the architect of Mandal Commission report that led to reservation in government jobs for OBCs. Pappu Yadav was recently acquitted by the Supreme Court in the CPI-M leader Ajit Sarkar murder case and was fielded by Lalu Prasad. The 46-year-old has 17 criminal cases pending against him where charges have been framed. [caption id=“attachment_792903” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Pappu Yadav. AFP.[/caption] BJP has chosen to tap a prominent non-Yadav caste leader in Vijay Singh Kushwaha, husband of Renu Kushwaha - former minister in Nitish Kumar’s cabinet. With her husband going to BJP, Renu has also crossed over to the BJP. Sharad Yadav has won Madhepura Lok Sabha seat four times in 1991, 1996, 1999 and 2009. He was defeated by RJD supremo Lalu Prasad on the seat in 1998 and 2004. With about 3.50 lakh voters hailing from Yadav caste, Madhepura is considered a happy hunting ground for leaders of the backward caste, who are engaged in agriculture and cattle rearing. History also suggests that since 1952, with exception of Acharya Kriplani in 1957, Madhepura has never elected a non-Yadav candidate. In Darbhanga, cricketer-turned-BJP leader Kirti Azad is up against former Union Minister RJD leader MAA Fatmi, JD(U)’s Sanjay Jha, and AAP’s Prabhat Ranjan Das. Natives of the area, all of them are Maithili speaking. The Times of India reported that Sanjay Jha, once Nitish’s backroom boy is a contesting from Darbhanga for the first time. TOI reported: “Locals praise Jha because over the last few years, he has done some development-related work in remote areas of the constituency.” BJP leader Hukumdeo Narayan Yadav, a three time MP from Madhubani, is facing RJD candidate Abdul Bari Siddiqui. Economic Times reports that Siddiqui “is eyeing the major chunk of Yadavs and Muslims who together constitute nearly 28 per cent votes”. The constituency will be a three-way contest between the two and JD(U) candidate Ghulam Ghaus. In Jhanjharpur among candidates running for the Lok Sabha seat is Tiliya Devi, a Nobel prize nominee who is contesting on an AAP ticket. She’s up against BJP’s Birendra Kumar Chaudhary. Samastipur, reserved for candidates who belong to the Schedule Caste category, the contest is likely to be between the Congress’ Ashok Kumar, JD(U)’s Maheshwar Hazari and LJP’s Ram Chandra Paswan. The BJP candidate has not fielded a candidate from here. Begusarai is going to be a triangular contest between RJD candidate Tanveer Hassan, BJP candidate Bhola Singh and Communist Party of India (CPI) which fielded its state secretary Rajendra Prasad Singh due to their alliance with the JD(U). “The four-time Barauni MLA (Rajendra Prasad Singh) is training guns on both Congress and BJP in his campaign. According to a local resident Rajesh, if CPI keeps its cadre votes intact, it might have a bearing on the poll outcome,” Jagran post reports. In Khagaria AAP’s Dr Swami Vivekanand faces sitting JD(U) parliamentarian Dinesh Chandra Dubey and BJP-backed Lok Janshakti Party candidate Chaudhary Mehboob Ali Kaisar, a former Bihar Congress president who switched sides to contest this poll, Hindustan Times reported. Constituencies in numbers According to a poll survey conducted by the Lokniti, CSDS-IBN National Tracker, the BJP-LJP alliance is leading in Bihar and is likely to win by a large margin. Add to that, the survey projects that Congress-RJD may win 28 percent of the vote share, leaving Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) in a lurch. Numbers are indicative of one thing: pre-poll alliances have left JD(U) and Nitish completely isolated in the state they swept during the last polls. With inputs from PTI