NDA gears up for fight in RJD pocket-boroughs

The RJD is in the fray in 34 assembly constituencies while LJP candidates are trying their luck in 11.

Ruling NDA is gearing up for a fight to finish with rivals — RJD-LJP combine and Congress — as battlelines are drawn for the 45 assembly onstituencies spread over areas,once considered as RJD pocket boroughs,for the second phase on October 24.

Altogether 623 candidates are in the fray in the 45 assembly constituencies in a multi-cornored contest of which Tirhut,Mithilanchal regions,parts of Muzaffarpur and Motihari and the entire Darbhanga and Samastipur were known to be pockets of strength for the party.

The Congress and the BSP are contesting all the seats,while the ruling JD(U) is fighting in 28 and ally BJP in 17.

The RJD is in the fray in 34 assembly constituencies while LJP candidates are trying their luck in 11. Among left CPI-M and CPI have put up eight candidates each,while CPI-ML (Liberation) is contesting in 11 seats.

The political stalwarts whose fate will be decided in the second phase poll include state RJD chief Abdul Bari Siddiqui (Alinagar),his JD(U) counterpart Vijay Kumar Choudhary (Sarairanjan),JD(U) ministers Ramnath Thakur (Samastipur) and Shahid Ali Khan (Sursand).

Besides LJP supremo Ram Vilas Paswan’s brother and former MP Ramchandra Paswan will be crossing swords with CLP leader Ashok Kumar in Kusheshwa Asthan.

RJD chief whip in the assembly and former minister Ramchandra Purve is contesting from Parihar while former Union Minister M A A Fatmi’s son Fraz Fatmi is in the fray from Kevati.

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The area had between 1995-2000 been the stronghold of RJD when party supremo Lalu Prasad seemed to have good influence among entire OBC-EBC minority caste and swept to a three-fourths majority in Bihar assembly.

Even in the February and October 2005 polls the percentage of votes of the RJD-LJP was higher to the NDA despite a dip in RJD’s votes by 10 per cent compared to February 2005.

The assembly poll in October,2005 clearly demonstrated an upsurge in favour of the NDA against the backdrop of law and order situation in September following the Golu kidnapping case in Patna,which had also prompted Atal Behari Vajpayee to appeal for his safe release.

The brief spell of President’s rule under Buta singh administration after Rabri’s prolonged stay in office had not gone down well either and the result was marginal rise in sympathy and consequent voter turnout for the NDA. This resulted in percentages of RJD-LJD,who fought separately,to go down,but just so.

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While the Congress had won just one out of the eight seats contested by the grand old party,the RJD romped to victory in 22 of the seats on offer in February 2005. But subsequently,its tally plumetted to 19 in the October 2005 mid-term poll with a huge drop in its poll percentage.

Similarly,the NDA’s tally rose its tally to 23 in October from 17 seats in February 2005,while the LJP’s tally was halved from eight in February to just four in October 2005.

NDA hopes for a better showing and further increasing its strength in this area riding high on the crest of development plank.

Though infrastructure,law and order situation are advantage factors for NDA,the OBC-EBC votes are also crucial along with the minority core playing decisive role.

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With Prasad’s social justice plank in tatters,and Ram Vilas Paswan’s dalits having been wooed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar,known as an architect of social engineering,it would be an interesting call anyway.

The high number of dissidents who will challenge all parties and the delimitation blues would further make prediction of results in this area a very difficult proposition.