As Nitish Kumar Backs BJP, Uphill Task For Tejashwi Yadav To Defend Seat

Date: 31/10/2020

Hajipur, Bihar: Tejashwi Yadav goes from one region to a different daily to beat up support for the Grand Alliance in order that he could become Chief Minister of Bihar, but winning his own seat won't be easy as is up against an experienced BJP rival in Raghopur constituency, one who is backed by Nitish Kumar too.

A part of the Hajipur Lok Sabha seat, Raghopur assembly segment in Vaishali district will choose the second phase on November 3.

31-year-old Tejashwi Yadav, the younger son of Lalu Yadav, had taken contested from Raghopur in 2015 when he had barely reached the qualifying age of 25 for contesting elections.

He won the election and went on to become the deputy to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, whom he called chacha (paternal uncle) at the time, an expression of respect and alliance. But the alliance fell apart in 2017, and now Tejashwi Yadav is challenging Nitish Kumar for the highest post.

The Grand Alliance, spearheaded by Lalu Yadav's party RJD and with the Congress and Left parties as its members, has already announced Tejashwi Yadav as its chief ministerial candidate.

The Raghopur seat may be a Yadav-dominated constituency which Lalu Yadav had won in 1995, 2000, and his wife Rabri Devi had won in 2005.

Tejashwi Yadav's main rival now, BJP's Satish Kumar, had emerged an enormous killer, defeating Rabri Devi within the 2010 state election.

Satish Kumar, however, had lost to Tejashwi Yadav in 2015, when Tejashwi Yadav was a nominee of an alliance comprising his RJD, the JD(U) and therefore the Congress, while the BJP had contested alone.

The equation has changed since. Nitish Kumar's party JD(U) is back with the BJP and therefore the refore the RJD is in an alliance with the Congress and the Left parties.

Tejashwi Yadav and Satish Kumar are among 12 candidates contesting from Raghopur within the 2020 Bihar polls.

The Chirag Paswan-headed Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) has fielded Rakesh Roshan to form the competition triangular.

While, Satish Kumar is canvassing across the constituency daily, Tejashwi Yadav has not been ready to devote much time because he's busy campaigning across the state as an RJD 'star campaigner' within the absence of his father Lalu Yadav, who is serving a jail term in fodder scam cases.

Tejashwi Yadav had addressed a gathering of his supporters in Raghopur on the day of filing nomination on October 14 and told them that they might be electing a Chief Minister. Tejashwi Yadav returned to Raghopur on October 29 to hunt support from the voters.

As per the voter list of 2019, there's 3,36,613 electorate in Raghopur assembly segment.

While over 1.30 lakh Yadavs form the majority of the voters, the constituency features a significant presence of Rajputs, whose electorate size is estimated at around 40,000 followed by Muslims 22,000 and Paswan's 18,000.

"He (Tejashwi Yadav) has lost the trust of the people of Raghopur because he didn't do any substantial development work and only cheated voters for five years," Satish Kumar, who is additionally a Yadav, says about his main rival.

"Though he (Tejashwi Yadav) is trying to urge Yadav votes by claiming that he's getting to become the Chief Minister after the elections, people aren't interested," the BJP candidate said.

Asked if Tejashwi Yadav has the sting due to the very fact that his father is that the tallest leader of Yadavs in Bihar politics, BJP's Satish Kumar Yadav told press agency Press Trust of India that "The achievements of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Centre and Nitish Kumar in Bihar will comfortably see me through."

Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai, also a Yadav, features a great influence among the caste, which is a plus for the BJP candidate.

"If Lalu Yadav's name guarantees win for his sons, why has Tej Pratap run away to Hasanpur from Mahua in Vaishali? Even Tejashwi Yadav was getting to shift to another constituency, but was given a fallacy by his advisors to not do so as he will win from Raghopur by hoodwinking people within the name of being CM candidate of the opposition," BJP's Satish Kumar said.

On LJP's Rakesh Roshan, Satish Kumar said, "Had Ramvilas Paswan been alive this is able to not have happened. But, the LJP candidate is nowhere within the race as even the Paswan voters aren't backing him."