Aurangabad to miss battle of ballots between 2 families

AURANGABAD: This time, the Chittorgarh of Bihar will miss the battle of ballots between the next generations of two dominant Rajput families of the area — Satyendra Narayan Singh and Ram Naresh Singh alias Lutan Singh. The two families have fought the electoral battle from this parliamentary constituency most of the time since 1989.
The seat-sharing arrangement among the Grand Alliance partners deprived Congress of a chance to field its candidate this time as the seat has been allocated to Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) led by former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi despite Congress’s efforts to get it for Nikhil Kumar, son of former CM Satyendra Narayan Singh.
HAM(S) has fielded Upendra Prasad, a former MLC and an extremely backward caste (EBC) leader belonging to the Dangi community in the Magadh range, against sitting BJP MP Sushil Kumar Singh, who is the son of Lutan Singh, as election in Aurangabad is scheduled in the first phase on April 11.
For the last two general elections, this constituency has been widely regarded as the BJP-JD(U) stronghold and, therefore, it is a big challenge for the HAM(S) to break this iron hold and win the seat. The parliamentary constituency has the assembly segments of Kutumba, Aurangabad and Rafiganj in Aurangabad district and Gurua, Imamganj and Tekari in Gaya district.
This seat has always seen a fight based on personalities and social equations forged. Recently, PM Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the completion of the North Koel Canal irrigation project. How, it would impact the election is another matter.
Aurangabad has been mainly dominated by the two political families of Satyendra and Lutan in the Lok Sabha elections since 1957. The members of the two families have won this seat 12 times. Former CM Satyendra represented Aurangabad in 1957, 1971, 1977, 1980 and 1984. His daughter-in-law Shyama Singh won the seat in 1999 and his son Nikhil Kumar in 2004.
Similarly, Lutan won this seat in 1989 and 1991 while his son Sushil Singh won it thrice (1998, 2009 and 2014).
Normally, Aurangabad votes on personal influence and contact. For this reason, Satyendra won the election on a Congress ticket three times, as a Janata Party nominee twice and on Congress-O ticket once. Similarly, Sushil won two elections on Samata Party and JD(U) tickets before bagging the seat for BJP in 2014.
Sushil says the caste issue has been blown up by the tsunami of development in Aurangabad. “People are seeing all-round development. The Narendra Modi government has earned more trust due to work done in the last five years. The storm of development has blown up caste issue this time. The role I have played in completion of North Koel Project and other development works is highly appreciated by the local voters. We are getting more support than in last election and win with bigger margin than in 2014,” Sushil said.
A section of electors, however, differ with him. “There is no such development in Aurangabad. North Koel Project issue is being highlighted, but there is no water yet for irrigation. People here are dyed in caste colours and most of them decide their candidates to vote on caste and religion,” advocate Md Umar said.
But for businessman Law Kumar Singh, development has happened throughout the country, including Aurangabad. “Some people in Aurangabad are trying to paint the elections in communal colours, but at the end, the main issue will be personality and development,” he said.