Left’s first poll in Bihar since 1991

Aksheev Thakur

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New Delhi, May 3

Though the Left has a marginal say in Bihar politics, it is making its presence felt this Lok Sabha elections in the state’s Khagaria constituency. The CPM is contesting a parliamentary election in the state for the first time since 1991. The battle is between the CPM’s Sanjay Kumar and Chirag Paswan-led Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) candidate Rajesh Verma.

Chirag’s political acumen will be tested in the watertight faceoff between the NDA and Mahagathbandhan. Choudhary Mehboob Ali Kaiser has been campaigning with Kumar to woo Muslim voters. Kaiser, the lone Muslim to get elected to the Lok Sabha from the BJP-led NDA in Bihar, had won the parliamentary seat twice in 2014 and 2019, but this time the Chirag faction of the party has fielded Verma.

Khagaria has over 2.25 lakh Muslim voters, 3.5 lakh Yadavs, 2 lakh Mallahs and 2 lakh Kushwaha voters.

Kumar is backed by Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) leader Mukesh Sahani who joined the Grand alliance last month. Sahani is a Mallah leader and is expected to mobilise his community’s votes. Verma, an OBC, is banking on Dalits, non-Yadavs and non-Kushwaha voters. Verma was a ex-mayor of Bhagalpur and the rivals have dubbed him as an outsider. “You should vote for your own man and not the outsider,” said former Dy CM Tejashwi Yadav.

“The Modi factor is working and even my rivals know that the ‘labharthi’ scheme of the Centre is popular,” Verma said. Kumar, on the other hand, is raising the local issue of floods, besides the bigger issues such as “threat to the Constitution and democracy”