Wives of dons in fray for Bihar’s Siwan seat
Jitendra K Shrivastava
Tribune News Service
Siwan (Bihar), May 9
The Siwan Lok Sabha constituency is all set to see a proxy battle between two musclemen-turned-politicians — Mohammad Shahabuddin and Ajay Singh — as the NDA has fielded Singh's wife Kavita Singh against Mahagathbandhan nominee Hena Saheb, wife of Shahabuddin, former RJD MP who is lodged in Delhi's Tihar Jail.
Hena Saheb's candidature seemed obvious as her husband Mohammad Shahabuddin had represented this constituency four times on the RJD symbol. But it was bizarre that the NDA also fielded strongman Ajay Singh's wife Kavita Singh as the JD-U candidate even as Bihar CM Nitish Kumar had been voicing concern against criminal-turned-politicians," said Arun Singh, Siwan resident.
After being convicted in a murder case in 2007, Shahabuddin, locally known as "Sultan of Siwan" or "Saheb", was barred from contesting elections in 2009, so her wife Hena became a choice for the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in Siwan. She, however, lost the electoral battles in 2009 and 2014 Lok Sabha elections against BJP's Om Prakash Yadav. The BJP had to drop Yadav after the Siwan seat fell into the JD-U kitty under the NDA seat-sharing pact.
Both candidates claim to be fighting on development plank, but the real fight is in the name of RJD chief Lalu Yadav and PM Modi. The polling will be held on May 12.
