Purnia: It is a strange case for the Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress in the neighbouring constituencies of Purnia and Kasba. While the BJP is sitting pretty in Purnia, which has seen its candidate winning thrice since 1995, it is facing an uphill battle in Kasba. In both the seats the main fight is with the Congress.
Purnia has more than 40% voters belonging to the Marwari and Bania community which makes it a safe seat for the BJP and the party is banking on liquor baron Vijay Kumar Khemka, who is contesting his first election. The Congress has put up its district president Indu Sinha, who is also making her electoral debut, and the fight many say got over even before it began. But Sinha is banking on the votes of both the Rashtriya Janata Dal and Janata Dal United to see her through.
In the 2010 Assembly elections, BJP’s Raj Kishore Kehsari had defeated Congress candidate Ram Charitra Yadav by a margin of over 15,500 votes. Keshari was later murdered by a woman in 2011 who had alleged that he had raped her on several occasions. His wife Kiran Devi won the seat in a by-election but the BP denied her the ticket this time.
It was way back in 1969 that Congress had won in Purnia when Kamaldeo Narayan Sinha bagged the seat. But it still commands a loyal vote bank and after joining hands with RJD and JDU is hopeful of reversing its losing streak.
BJP leaders, however, dismiss any upset in Purnia. They say that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally in Purnia on November 2 will only help in increasing the victory margin as BJP’s win is a foregone conclusion.
But the major headache for the Congress is the presence of several candidates, who were in the party in the past, in the fray. The most prominent rebel is Ram Charitra Yadav, who has tried his luck from the seat unsuccessfully thrice. Yadav is in the fray as an independent candidate and hopes to be fourth time lucky.
The other former Congress leaders who are in the fray include Arvind Kumar alias Bhola Sah who is contesting as Madhepura MP Rajesh Ranjan alias Papu Yadav’s Jan Adhikar Party (Loktantrik) candidate, Samajwadi Party’s Colonel Akshay Yadav (retired) and Bindu Prakash Jha as Ittehad-e-Millat Council nominee.
BJP cadre point towards the Congress rebels and say they will eat into Sinha’s votes making it easier for Khemka. Even the voters in Purnia say the presence of many former Congress leaders may hurt Sinha.
"Bahut vote katuwa hai is baar. Congress ko accha chance hai. Nitish Kumar saath hai aur unka kaam thik raha hai. Hum log unko CM dekhna chahte hai. Per yehan BJP majboot hai aur Congress ka to vote katega (There are many candidates who will split the votes. Congress has a good change as it is with Nitish Kumar whose work has been good. We want him as CM. But BJP is strong in the city and Congress votes will split)," say a group of fruit sellers and auto rickshaw drivers near the Purnia bus stand.
But in Kasba, it is the BJP which is facing an uphill task. Even though the party has put up its old warhorse Pradip Kumar Das, yet the sitting Congress legislator Mohammad Afaque Alam is confident of retaining the seat.
Das and Alam are old rivals and they clashed head on for the first time on in the 2000 elections when the former emerged victorious. Alam had contested as an independent and was a close second. He later joined the Samajwadi Party and avenged his loss in the February 2005 elections but Das won when elections were again held in October 2005. Das had won for the first time in 1995.
The victory margin has never been huge for either of them and the BJP is hopeful that Modi’s magic, which failed in the region during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, will see Das through.
But a local journalist believes that Alam will retain the seat. “Das used to win due to communal polarization. This time there is no polarization. Kasba is Muslim dominated and there are no strong Muslim candidates other than Alam. This seat will go to Congress,” said Mahavir Prasad Lath, who started a Hindi weekly Chirag in 1959 and brought it out till 1987. He stopped the magazine as he found no one capable enough to run it after he became old.
The 88-year-old Lath, who still keeps a tab on the events in Purnia district through his network, further added that while Das has worked in the area but Alam is better connected to the voters who are looking at the work done by Nitish Kumar too. Pointing to the road around Rani Sati Chowk in Kasba, he said that till about five years back it used to be full of potholes but the state government has now built it and its maintenance is also good. Even electricity supply has improved in Kasba in the last three years.
Claiming to be a BJP supporter, Lath added that in Purnia district, which has seven constituencies, the party is in the race in only a couple of seats.
Purnia votes in the last phase on November 5 and results will be declared three days later on 8.
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