Congress rebel Pappu Yadav’s plunge may queer RJD pitch in Purnea, give an edge to JD(U)

Former MP Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav, who has defied his party Congress to file his nomination as an Independent from the Purnea Lok Sabha seat, has accused the RJD, the Congress’s senior Mahagathbandhan partner, of allegedly attempting to end his political career.

Breaking into tears before the camera, the five-time MP known for being a bahubali (strongman) politician with influence in the Seemanchal region, said he had all the qualities to become an MP again, claiming that while the Congress has officially refused to back his candidature as an Independent, he had the “backing of his party”.

Pappu, who had recently merged his Jan Adhikar Party with the Congress, had been expecting the party’s ticket from Purnea. But not only did the RJD refuse the seat to the Congress, it went on to field JD(U) rebel and former state minister Bima Bharati as its own nominee there, against sitting JD(U) MP Santosh Kumar Kushwaha.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Kushwaha had defeated the Congress’s Uday Singh by over 2.6 lakh votes.

Now that Pappu has joined the fray, Purnea is all set to see a triangular contest with the former likely to cut into the vote base of the Mahagathbandhan’s joint candidate Bharati, resulting in the NDA’s nominee Kushwaha gaining an advantage. Pappu had won from Purnea thrice, in 1991, 1996 and 1999, before shifting to Madhepura, which he went on to win twice.

After filing his nomination Thursday, Pappu broke into tears, saying, “By denying me the Purnea ticket, the RJD is trying to murder me politically. I had been insisting on contesting from Purnea from the start, and had conveyed the same to top leaders of Congress before I merged my party with it. I had also met RJD chief Lalu Prasad, who advised me to try