There is a very interesting saying about Madhepura—“Rome Pope ka, Madhepura Gope ka (What Rome is to Pope, Madhepura is to Gope or Yadavs)”. It’s not surprising then that, since Independence, this key north Bihar constituency has sent only Yadavs to Lok Sabha.
In view of the considerable presence of Yadav voters there, just about every party has given tickets to leaders from this community, and that has made the battle tough for the RJD, which currently represents this seat.
Yet another trouble for the RJD is that party chief Lalu Prasad is not around to campaign for his party candidate this time as he is in jail for the past 17 months in connection with the fodder scam. In a huge setback to the party, the Supreme Court recently rejected his bail plea.
Madhepura was one of the four seats the RJD had won even at the height of Narendra Modi wave. In the 2014 polls, the RJD had placed its bet on Pappu Yadav, who defeated the JDU’s Sharad Yadav by over 56,000 votes despite the contest turning triangular. This time too, the contest remains triangular although the entire political scene has undergone a complete change.
Sharad Yadav has now been fielded as an RJD-led Grand Alliance candidate and is being challenged by none other than Pappu Yadav, who is this time contesting as a candidate of the Jan Adhikar Party (JAP), a political outfit he floated soon after revolting against the RJD leadership, leading to his expulsion from the parent party.
Initially, Pappu tried hard to get a ticket from the RJD or the Congress but the former strongly objected to his move, forcing the grand old party to keep its distance from Pappu. This prompted him to jump into the fray on his own, turning the whole contest triangular, as the NDA has fielded Dinesh Chandra Yadav. What is significant is that all these three candidates are from the Yadav community.
The RJD candidate banks on the support of Muslims and Yadavs, apart from the Dalit community, whereas Pappu expects to get the votes of his fellow caste men, besides his personal rapport with the residents, since voters find him accessible most of the time.
The NDA candidate, on the other hand, banks on the support of upper caste, multiple smaller caste voters and popularity of Narendra Modi and Nitish Kumar. It’s obviously a tough time for the voters to make a choice. As per a rough estimate, Madhepura has 3.50 lakh Yadav voters, 2 lakh Muslim voters and some 4.50 lakh voters of various other castes, apart from a small population of upper castes.
A plus point for Sharad is that he is very well aware of this constituency, since he has represented it four times in the past — in 1991, 1996, 1999 and 2009, while Pappu has represented this seat twice — in 2004 and 2014.
Another factor which seems to be working in favour of the RJD candidate is absence of Lalu.
As such, Pappu’s entry in Madhepura has created double trouble for the Grand Alliance. Reports said the RJD was not supporting Congress candidate Ranjita Ranjan in neighbouring Supaul seat, since her husband Pappu is contesting against the RJD candidate in Madhepura.
Pappu’s political ambition is, thus, creating problems for two Grand Alliance seats — Madhepura and Supaul.
Reposted with courtesy from thebiharpost.com
