Why Muzaffarpur is giving nightmares to both NDA, Grand Alliance nominees

MUZAFFARPUR: It’s not often that all major alliances in a constituency are hit by dissidence. As electioneering comes to an end in Muzaffarpur, dissidents are set to mar the poll prospects of both the NDA and the Grand Allaince (GA) official candidates on May 6.
BJP has fielded Ajay Nishad, sitting MP and son of late Capt Jai Narain Prasad Nishad, a five-time MP from here.The Senior Nishad had never been loyal to any party and changed affiliation after every election. The voters are sceptical and so are the rank and file of the saffron party, who have not accepted the junior Nishad as their candidate.
Complete coverage: Lok Sabha Elections 2019
Even ally JD(U) is lukewarm about his candidature, which party sources said, is evident from the fact that most of the senior district-level party workers were conspicuous by their absence at the recently held Vijay Sankalp rally of PM Narendra Modi. Only a handful of party workers came. “We are deeply distressed over the selection of the candidate, but will leave everything to the voters,” said a senior party leader, who did not want to be named.
“Though, senior Nishad was always in touch with his voters, especially the people of his caste. But, Ajay has never visited the village. Consequently, he has loosened the grip over his own community,” said Santosh Sahni, a voter from Bochaha assembly segment. “This is going to cost him dearly in the election on May 6,” he added.

Ally JD(U)’s reluctance towards the NDA candidate is evident despite the workers’ initial zeal to see the victory of their PM candidate Narendra Modi. “Traditionally, this is our seat ever since senior Nishad won the election. So, we are deeply distressed over the selection of the candidate this time as we were hoping to field our own candidate. We will leave everything to the voters,” said a senior leader of JDU. He, however, hastened to add that personally he is for the greater goal of making Modi the next PM.
Similarly, the Grand Alliance has fielded a renowned medical practitioner , Raj Bhushan Chaudhary, who belongs to the same Nishad caste as his NDA rival. Chaudhary is the official candidate of the newly floated Vikassheel Insan Party (VIP) and this is his first election.
However, Chaudhary is feeling the heat from some senior local leaders of ally RJD, who appear reluctant to accept him as their leader. As a result, rumours are doing the round that dissension in the RJD may swing the mood of the voters from a particular caste and spoil the game in favour of both of the official candidates.

Choudhary, however, is drawing comfort from RJD chief’s Muslim-Yadav equation in this constituency. A senior RJD leader and a former office-bearer said voters from Yadav community might be vital for both. “A major shift of voters from this group can be possible because they are assuming that winning of VIP candidate will deminish their election prospect in the future as Sahni group will be in power,” he said
A poll analyst and a member of the Syndicate in the Bhim Rao Ambedkar Bihar University Harendra Kumar said both the alliance are eyeing the votes of Mallah (fishermen community) as they are in sizable numbers.
“Both the alliances are dependent on the voters from ‘mallah’ (boatman community) as they are in sizeable number. Even many from the Yadav community are not ready to accept Chaudhary as their leader despite the fact that the Nishad community has never voted in favour of their candidates in the last several elections. Hence, they can ditch the GA candidate,” said Kumar.
Similarly, the NDA candidate’s major area of concern is to keep leaders from JDU and other parties of the alliance in his favour. A major section of leaders from these parties are annoyed with Nishad, who seldom visited them during his five-year stint as MP of this constituency.
“How can they accept him as their leader, who has seldom met with them? His father (senior Nishad) used to visit all the people of his concern setting caste barrier aside. So, the dissidents from his own alliance may spoil his game,” said Arun Kumar Singh, a teacher of political science at RDS College, Muzaffarpur.