PolitMaster.com is a comprehensive online platform providing insightful coverage of the political arena: International Relations, Domestic Policies, Economic Developments, Electoral Processes, and Legislative Updates. With expert analysis, live updates, and in-depth features, we bring you closer to the heart of politics. Exclusive interviews, up-to-date photos, and video content, alongside breaking news, keep you informed around the clock. Stay engaged with the world of politics 24/7.
SINCE 2009, at least 17 of Bihar’s 40 Lok Sabha seats have voted for a candidate of the same caste. Eight of these have gone to upper castes, including Rajputs, Bhumihars, Brahmins and Kayasthas.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), which has announced a list of 22 candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, seems to have fallen back on its trusted Muslim-Yadav combine to keep social combinations intact.
With barely ten days to go for the Lok Sabha polls, Bihar’s Leader of Opposition and ex-deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, 34, has stepped up his campaigning. Spearheading the RJD’s charge, Tejashwi has also emerged as the face of the Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) in the crucial battleground state. In an interview withThe Indian Express, Tejashwi speaks on several burning issues, ranging from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s onslaught over corruption and dynasty politics to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s poll pitch, to the Opposition’s challenges. Excerpts:
The 48-year-old Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) leader Arun Bharati, an MBA, became active in politics after the demise of his father-in-law Ram Vilas Paswan, the LJP founder and ex-Union minister, in 2020. He then started accompanying his brother-in-law Chirag Paswan, the sitting Jamui MP, during his public outreach in the constituency.
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.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), whose chief Lalu Prasad’s “no family of his own” jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi prompted the BJP to launch “Modi ka parivar (Modi’s family)” campaign, is now looking to turn the tables on the NDA. The coalition led by the BJP, which often uses “parivarvaad” (dynastic politics) to target the Opposition, has fielded 11 sons and daughters belonging to political families in Bihar for the Lok Sabha elections. The NDA has declared candidates for all the 40 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
Now that both the NDA and INDIA bloc have announced their seat-sharing formula, and their constituent parties have declared their candidates as well, two things are clearly emerging in the battle for Bihar. While the NDA, which had won 39 out of 40 seats in the 2019 polls, is banking mostly on sitting MPs, RJD chief Lalu Prasad has, expectedly, dictated the terms within the INDIA bloc as far as ally Congress goes.
Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Chirag Paswan has managed to upstage his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras to become the BJP’s ally in Bihar, receiving five tickets for his Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) in return. Chirag, a two-time MP, will contest from his father Ram Vilas Paswan’s traditional seat Hajipur.