A report by Anish Ankur on the last phase of the general election 2024 in Bihar.

The seventh and the last phase of voting will be held on Saturday (June 1) for 57 seats in eight States and Union territories. Voting is already over in 486 seats in 28 States and Union territories. The poll process began on April 19 and counting will be held on June 4. 

In the crucial state of Bihar, voting is being held for eight constituencies – Nalanda, Patna Sahib, Pataliputra, Arrah, Buxar, Sasaram, Karakat and Jahanabad. These constituencies which fall in the Magadh and Bhojpuri speaking regions of the state are witnessing a fierce electoral battle. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other NDA star campaigners visited Bihar and addressed a number of rallies not only in the big cities but even at block levels. At an election rally in Buxar, Narendra Modi spoke threateningly about how RJD leaders like Lalu Prasad and Tajasvi Yadav will be sent to jail after the election is over and the NDA government is formed.

On the eve of the seventh and last round of polling, Groundxero visited two out of the eight constituencies in Bihar – Patna Sahib and Patliputra – to find out the mood of the people.

Nalanda of Magadh region is considered to be a kind of bastion for the Nitish Kumar led JD(U). Kaushlendra Kumar, a confidant of Nitish Kumar, has won the Nalanda seat thrice and is now contesting for the fourth consecutive term. On behalf of the INDIA allaince side, Paliganj’s MLA and CPI(ML-Liberation) leader Sandeep Saurabh is taking on Kaushlendra Kumar. Initially it was thought that Nalanda was a safe seat for the BJP-led NDA but as the poll progressed CPI(ML-Liberation)’s aggressive campaign has made things difficult for Kaushlendra Kumar, the JD(U) MP. Even Nitish Kumar has to personally visit Nalanda to campaign and urge people to vote for his party. There is a lot of resentment against Kaushlendra Kumar as he hardly visits the people in his constituency. Nitish Kumar belongs to Nalanda district and so is the most favourite district of the chief minister and a number of big projects were implemented in the district. But Bihar Sharif, the most prominent town in the Nalanda District witnessed horrendous communal riots last year during Ram Navami procession, in which an old mosque and madrasa was burnt. Precious old manuscripts and rare books were burnt into ashes, when the rioters attacked the madrasa. The memory of this tragic incident is still lingering in the hearts of common people, especially minorities, and it will certainly have an effect on the poll outcome. 

Nalanda was a left stronghold just one or two decades ago. CPI leader Vijay Sinh Yadav has won this parliamentary seat several times. Although Nalanda is a Kurmi dominated, the caste Nitish Kumar belongs to but communist party leader Vijay Singh Yadav had managed to win the seat. Now the big question is will Sandeep Saurabh follow in the footsteps of Vijay Singh Yadav?

Another very important seat in this phase is Buxar, a city of mythical importance bordering Uttar Pradesh. An interesting battle is going on in Buxar as BJP denied ticket to its sitting MP and prominent state leader Ashwini Chaubey and instead put up Mithilesh Tiwary as its candidate. Mithilesh Tiwary is currently BJP MLA from Baikunthpur assembly constituency of Gopalganj. RJD has fielded Sudhakr Singh, son of prominent RJD leader Jagdanand Singh and ex-MP of Buxar. Sudhakar Singh was the state agricultural minister when RJD was part of the Nitish Kumar government from August 2022 to January 2024. 

Just one month before the commencement of the parliamentary election, many villages in Buxar district, particularly Banapur, Mohanpurwa and Kothadhi witnessed severe police atrocities. The police did not spare the elderly, women and children also. The video of  a lathi charge against protesting farmers went viral. The farmers were demanding fair compensation for their land acquired for the Chausa Thermal power project. This incident attracted the attention of farmers’ organisations. They agitated against it; several protest meetings were organised in the affected villages. The Bihar unit of Sanyukt Kisan Morcha has given a call to defeat the BJP-led NDA in the state. Ashok Prasad Singh and Dinesh Singh state convenors of  SKM have given a call to defeat and punish the anti-farmer BJP in Bihar. A SKM banner in Buxar says “To avenge the brutal police atrocities, vote for those candidates who can defeat BJP”. The anger and resentment among the farmers following the Chausa incident will certainly affect the NDA’s prospects in the constituency. 

Another factor that will go against the NDA candidate is the presence of an independent candidate Anand Mishra, a retired army man, who took retirement just to fight the election. He was promised a ticket by the top BJP leaders but at the last moment Mithilesh Tiwary became the BJP candidate. In terms of caste equation, Mishra will make a dent in the NDA social base. Anand Mishra’s candidature has made Mithilesh Tiwary uncomfortable to such an extent that the BJP nominee branded him as ‘Urban Naxal’. Anand Mishra will eat into the Mithilesh Tiwary vote share as both belong to the same caste. Sudhakar Singh’s pro-farmer image along with the resentment generated among the peasants by the Chausa brutal police atrocities is going to be badly damaging for the BJP’s new candidate despite BJP winning this seat earlier.

Another very hot seat in the last phase is Karakat in Bhojpuri speaking area. NDA candidate and former union minister under Modi government, Upendra Kushwaha is contesting from Karakat on the symbol of its latest outfit Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLP). He is pitted against popular peasant leader and former Obra MLA Rajaram Singh of INDIA alliance. Rajaram Singh belongs to CPI (ML-Liberation). Liberation is contesting from three parliamentary seats in Bihar in this election. Both Rajaram Singh and Upendra Kushwaha belong to Kushwaha caste. Rajaram Singh is a respected leader across the state particularly due to his involvement in the historic farmers’ movement that forced the Modi government to withdraw the three farmers bill. 

The election in Karakat took an interesting turn when a popular Bhojpuri singer Pawan Singh entered into the fray. Pawan Singh popularity is for singing obscene Bhojpuri songs. BJP had at first fielded him from Asansol parliamentary constituency in West Bengal against Shatrughan Sinha (Bihari Babu) from TMC. But following a huge public outrage over his obscene anti-women songs, BJP withdrew his candidature from Asansol. Since Karakat went to Upendra Kushwaha’s party during seat adjustment, BJP instigated Pawan Singh to file his nomination as an independent candidate from Karakat. BJP has the habit of indulging in this kind of politics and it has done so with Nitish Kumar in the 2020 assembly election. Since Pawan Singh is a wealthy person and famous people in the Bhojpuri speaking belt, the Karakat seat naturally attracted the attention of the media particularly YouTube channels. A lot of Bhojpuri film stars are camping in Karakat and campaigning for Pawan Singh. Even the Election Commission brand ambassodor’s Singer Maithili Thakur and cricketer Akash, in a clear violation of the model code of conduct, campaigned for Pawan Singh. After a lot of hue and cry and under pressure from its alliance partners, BJP had to dismiss Pawan Singh from the party after he had campaigned for several days. There is no doubt that Pawan Singh is going to cut Upendra Kushwaha’s vote bank. His presence is going to benefit the INDIA allàince candidate Rajaram Singh.

In Jehanabad Surendra Yadav of RJD is battling against the sitting JD(U) MP Chandrahewar Prasad Chandrvanshi. Here former Jehanabad two-time MP Arun Kumar, is in the fray, this time contesting on BSP symbol. His presence is causing trouble for the NDA candidate. Arun Kumar has the habit of changing parties. He was with LJP(R) Chirag Paswan but after being denied ticket to contest, he threw himself in the electoral ring as BSP candidate. He is making a dent into the upper caste vote bank of the NDA. 

In the 2019 parliamentary election, Surendra Yadav had lost to the JD(U) candidate by a very narrow margin of just seventeen hundred votes. These days we hear a lot of complaints against the sitting MPs for not being accessible to the voters whom they are representing. Chandrahewar Prasad Chandrawanshi is facing this charge almost everywhere he goes in Jehanabad. The opposition parties are also accusing him for the ‘ambulance scam’ to the tune of 1600 crore. RJD nominee Surendra Yadav had won in 1998 from Jehanabad constituency and earned notoriety for tearing apart the women’s reservation bill which was placed in the parliament. Jehanabad has always been a constituency with a sizable left presence. CPI leader Ramshray Yadav had won from this parliamentary seat several times. Various naxalite outfits have pockets of influence in Jehanabad. CPI(ML-Liberation) has even one MLA from this constituency. Jehanabad had witnessed several massacres of dalits by the upper caste private armies. NDA has been winning the Jehanabad seat continuously for the last two and half decades. This time RJD strongman Surendra Yadav has a good chance of winning this seat as all equations seem to be in his favour.

Rajkumar Singh former home secretary of India is the two-time sitting MP from Ara. This time he is locking horns with CPI (ML-Liberation)’s Tarari MLA Sudama Prasad. A direct and aggressive battle between the right and left ideology is going on in Ara. CPI(ML-Liberation) lone MP from Bihar had been from Ara constituency in the 1989 parliamentary election. People’s complaints of accessibility also exist against Rajkumar Singh. Although his supporters boast of many big projects to his credit, Ara town is still suffering from the basic amenities.

CPI(ML-Liberation) won two assembly seats from Ara. This time Sudama Prasad has put up a very formidable challenge to Rajkumar Singh. Another factor is the candidature of Pawan Singh from Karakat against Upendra Kushwaha. This may lead to shifting of Kushwaha voters towards Sudama Prasad in Ara. In several parliamentary seats, Kushwaha seems to be preferring INDIA alliance over NDA. The expulsion of Pawan Singh, after much dilly-dallying by BJP, was done just to keep the Kushwahas vote intact for the NDA. Will Rajkumar Singh be able to cross these several odds is difficult to say but Ara is not going to be an easy battle for him.

Another exciting battle is going on in Patliputra and Patna Sahib parliamentary constituency.  Groundxero visited both these constituencies. Former union minister Ramkripal Yadav, five-time MP is once again fighting from the Patliputra constituency. Although he had won this seat thrice on RJD symbol but had shifted to BJP after being denied ticket in the 2014. He has won two consecutive terms as BJP candidate defeating Lalu’s Prasad eldest daughter Misa Bharti. Misa is the second daughter of Lalu Prasad who is contesting the 2024 election. She lost the 2019 election by forty thousand votes. RJD has never been able to win the Patliputra seat. Even Lalu’s Prasad himself had lost this seat to Ranjan Yadav, his old friend, in 2009. The Patliputra seat came into existence after the delimitation exercise of 2008. Before that Ramkripal Yadav had won from here many times. However this seat has also traditionally been with the CPI. Popular mass leader of CPI Ramavtar Shastri had won this seat several times. He had been considered the most popular mass leader from this parliamentary constituency since independence.

In the 2020 assembly elections, almost every assembly constituency in Patliputra was won by the RJD-led alliance. This is likely to favour Misa Bharti this time. Problem with Ramkripal Yadav is that he has not been able to do much for the problems of Partiliputra. Take for example the woes of peasants whose land has been taken for the development of Mega Industrial Park in Bihta. Bihta, 30 kms from Patna is the fastest developing suburb around the capital city. Several industries, medical and engineering colleges have been set up in Bihta. For all these establishments, the peasants have given their land eagerly but till now most of them have not received fair compensation. As Gopal Sharma from Amhara village and convenor of Bihar Rajya Kisan Sabha told Groundxero “The farmers are agitating for more than ten years for fair compensation but to no avail. The NDA government has been insensitive to the demands of the farmers. Ramkripal Yadav supported farmers verbally but nothing happened despite BJP being in power. The farmers whose land has been acquired always voted for BJP but the central as well as state government never paid any heed to their demands. They think they are their captive voters. Two farmers lost their lives during the movement. There was so much resentment against the BJP that all the big BJP leaders regularly visited the Amhara village, the epicentre of the movement. It will badly affect the prospects of BJP here.”

In the Bikram the long demand for a ‘trauma centre’ has not been fulfilled. Although construction of a building for the Trauma centre had been completed long ago, the centre is not yet functional. A number of sit-in-protests have been held by the residents of Bikram and nearby villagers but nothing has happened. All the villages neighbouring Bikram have voted for BJP in the hope of getting a hospital but it couldn’t see the light of the day. Devkant, a medical representative of  Sabajpura village near Dulhin Bazar commented “Ramkripal is an useless MP. He only attends family functions of voters like marriage and death ceremonies and does nothing. Unemployed youths don’t get any work. We will teach him a lesson this time.”

People’s resentment is to such an extent that Ramkripal has been heckled in some villages in Paliganj block. Pawan Kumar, a farmer of Akhtiyarpur village near Panganj town said “When Ramkripal Yadav went to villages seeking votes, many villagers asked him tough questions-  What have you done for us while we voted for you several times?” A trend is being observed in many regions, where a BJP candidate is contesting, the JD(U)’s support base is reluctant to vote for the BJP candidate. Anant Kumar, a famous Hindi writer from Kurthaul village about 10 km south of Patna explained “My area always voted for Nitish Kumar’s party but this time we are thinking of changing our option and vote for the INDIA alliance nominee. The way BJP has been treating Nitish Kumar in this election has given a negative signal. Therefore people are of the view that the BJP should be paid back the same treatment that it is given to Nitish Kumar during the 2020 assembly election. Ramkripal Yadav will have to face the wrath of the people in my area.” 

Patna Sahib parliamentary constituency is the safest seat for the BJP. It has never lost this seat in the last several decades. Former union minister Ravishankar Prasad is the sitting MP of Patna Sahib. He defeated film star Shatrughn Sinha in the 2019 parliamentary election. The Congress party changes candidates frequently in this constituency. Film actor Shekhar Suman, now in the BJP, famous Bhojpuri film actor Kunal Singh and Shatrughn Sinha have been the congress candidates from here in the last three elections. This time, Anshul Avijit, the grandson of the legendary dalit leader and former vice prime minister of the country Jagjiwan Ram and son of former Lok Sabha speaker Meera Kumar is fighting on Congress symbol from Patna Sahib. 

Anshul Aviji has done MPhil and Phd from Cambridge University, London. Some people are highly impressed by his foreign degrees, as Aftab Ahmad a resident of Patna City told Groundxero “Look at the educational qualification of Anshul Abhijeet Kushwaha. In today’s time, when educated people are moving away from politics, Anshul ji has decided to contribute to politics after studying at such big universities of the world. Therefore, this time the people of Patna should not miss such oppurtunity and vote for an educated candidate, who is also a person with an honest and clean image.” 

Earlier, political experts have predicted that a newcomer like Anshul Avijit is a novice before the seasoned BJP leader Ravishankar Prasad. But as the election progressed and the Anshul Avijit  campaign picked up, everyone was surprised to see the kind of wide support he was getting. Anshul Avijit’s first election rally after filing nomination held at the historic ‘Congress Maidan’ made an impressive start. Left cadres from CPI, CPI(M) and CPI(ML-Liberation) are working very hard to take the message of the Congress party to the people. At the main election office at Jagat Narayan road, Kadamkuan close to the residence of Jaiprakash Narayan Groundxero met Ashok Tiwary, Anjarul Haque both theatre artists and Sanyasi Red, a sculptor. They were planning how to convey the message to the voters in simple language. Ashok Tiwary said “We are helping Anshul Avijit as we want change in the Patna Sahib.” Same was the sentiment of Anjarul Haque.

The campaign team of Anshul Avijit has prepared a poster that read “Where is our present MP Ravishankar Prasad!” Patna Sahib residents complain of the same thing – the BJP MPs hardly come to us when we are in need. As Anil Kumar Razak, a resident of Annie Besent road near Ashok Rajpath said “When Patna was facing the wrath and devastation of flood in the rainy season of 2019, our MP was nowhere. When the Corona tragedy came, Ravishankar Prasad was nowhere to be seen; he even didn’t come out of his house.” 

Anshul Avijit’s mother Meera Kumar is also campaigning day and night for her son. While addressing the sanitation workers of Patna at the CPI office Ajay Bhavan, Langertoli, she said “The Safai Karamcharis are those who keep our city clean but if they are not paid their salaries for several months then it’s a very bad thing.” 

CPI, CPI(M) and CPI( ML-Liberation) activists are campaigning at the ground level. Various other left groups are also campaigning for the defeat of the BJP in Patna Sahib. These different left groups, however, are not directly appealing people to vote for the Congress candidates. The CPI(ML) faction of late naxalite leader Kanu Sanyal organised a day-long convention in the IMA hall of Patna and appealed to defeat the BJP. Another left group ‘Shram Mukti Sangthan’ is distributing leaflets arguing people to defeat communal forces hell bent on attacking the working class. 

Will these efforts bear any fruit for Anshul Avijit, CPI and CPI(M) district secretary Vishwajeet Kumar and Manoj Chandrvanshi told Groundxero “Anshul Avijit candidature was announced a little late. And the way he has got support from almost every section of the society, one thing is certain, he is going to give Ravishankar Prasad a very good fight.”

Amit Kumar, a famous poll strategist based in Patna summed up the eighth phase in these terms: “BJP and NDA have nothing to offer in this phase. Initially it was said that NDA was in a comfortable situation after JD(U) became part of the NDA but as the election progressed Congress and INDIA alliance became the symbol of hope and progress. The INDIA alliance talks about the future while NDA is still talking about the past. They don’t have any futuristic programmes to offer for the young generation. They are trying to fan out religious and communal passions. I don’t think this divisive agenda is going to work now.”