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He was once the second-in-command of former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad. Then, having fallen out with him, joined the Janata Dal (United) and defeated him in a Lok Sabha election. Now Ranjan Prasad Yadav, 79, is back in the RJD.
AS FAR as debuts go, the two scions couldn’t have asked for a better stage than Samastipur, once represented in the Lok Sabha by legendary socialist leader and two-time Bihar chief ministerKarpoori Thakur. The timing too is propitious, with Bihar having finished just months ago a caste survey, a natural progression of the quota system pioneered by Thakur. Days later, the Narendra Modi government awarded Thakur the Bharat Ratna.
The last of the Seemanchal seats set to go to polls, the story of the election in Araria in north Bihar that votes on Tuesday lies in its two famous landmarks linked to figures, almost a generation apart, who were voices of the region in their own way, one a pioneering writer and the other a strongman-politician.
Not too long ago, both the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar were trying to own the caste-based survey that last year revealed that the Economically Backward Classes (EBCs) were the largest social bloc in the state at 36.1% of the population.
As one enters the market in Khagaria in central Bihar, a sea of red flags immediately catches the eye. Though the Left, part of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)-led Mahagathbandhan, is a marginal player in Bihar politics, it is making its presence felt this Lok Sabha election in the Khagaria-Begusarai belt.
In the battleground state of Bihar, the second phase of polling on Friday will see five constituencies go to the polls, including three from the Muslim-dominated Seemanchal region.
Of the five Lok Sabha constituencies in Bihar that will vote in the second phase on Friday, the most talked about is Purnia in the Seemanchal region where more than sitting MP Santosh Kushwaha of the Janata Dal (United), the Opposition or the BJP, it is three-time MP Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav who is contesting as an Independent.
The lone Muslim MP of the NDA in the outgoing Lok Sabha, Choudhary Mehboob Ali Kaiser left the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) a few days ago to join the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) after being denied the ticket from Khagaria, which he has represented since 2014. He speaks to The Indian Express on his decision to defect and the “sharpened” religious binary in the NDA regime, and claims Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s charisma is “waning”. Excerpts: