© The Indian Express (P) Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
A battle royale is brewing in the November 3 bypoll for Bihar’s Gopalganj constituency, where the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has fielded Sadhu Yadav’s wife Indira against the RJD’s Mohan Gupta, with the BJP’s Kusum Devi hoping to play spoiler. The bypoll was necessitated after the death of Gopalganj BJP MLA Subhash Singh, Kusum Devi’s husband.
Sadhu Yadav, or Anirudh Prasad, the brother-in-law of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav and a former MLA and MP from the area, has been telling people that they should vote for Indira, because the couple have always remained close to the voters.
This is not the first time Sadhu has taken on candidates fielded by the RJD. Once very close to Lalu, Sadhu was picked as an RJD MLC in 1995 under the sports quota, renominated to Bihar’s Upper House in 1998, won from the Gopalganj Assembly seat two years later, and in 2004, became the MP from Gopalganj. However, since 2005, Lalu and Sadhu have fallen out, with Sadhu involved in a series of controversies and scraps during the RJD’s tenure in Bihar.
While he was still an RJD MP, Indira had contested from the Gopalganj Assembly seat as an Independent. After he ended ties with the RJD, Sadhu floated the Garib Janata Dal party, and in 2015, unsuccessfully contested from the Barauli Assembly segment in Gopalganj. In 2020, he was the runner-up from Gopalganj as a BSP nominee, behind the BJP’s Subhash Singh.
While during her campaign speeches, Indira talks of seeking “the blessings of Laluji and Rabriji”, Sadhu speaks about his long stint in Gopalganj. “One can ask people about my credentials here. I have worked hard to nurture the constituency. People still remember my work as an MLA and an MP,” he said, while campaigning on Wednesday.
The social equation though is slightly in favour of the RJD’s Manoj Gupta, who belongs to the OBC Baniya community. If Gupta is able to split the Baniya votes, otherwise seen as the BJP’s core voters, he can hope to club the same with the Yadav, Muslim and Kurmi votes, for a winning combination.
RJD national spokesperson Subodh Kumar told The Indian Express: “Indira Yadav’s candidature will have no impact on Gopalganj polls. With Nitish Kumar and Tejashwi Yadav coming together now, there will be one-sided polling in our favour. While Nitish represents good governance, Tejashwi represents the aspirational youth. With our government creating jobs and employment, it will be the Grand Alliance all the way.”
