Wives and kin of Bahubalis in fray for May 12 parliamentary polls in Bihar

Gopalganj/Siwan: Wives and kin of known Bahubali or musclemen are in the fray for May 12 parliamentary polls in Bihar in the eight Lok Sabha constituencies that go to polls in the sixth phase of the general elections.
The elections will decide Members of Parliament from Valmiki Nagar, Paschim Champaran, Purvi Champaran, Sheohar, Vaishali, Gopalganj, Siwan and Maharajganj are going to polls.

In Siwan Hina Sahab, wife of convicted don and four times MP Mohammad Shahabuddin, is contesting against Kavita Singh a Janata Dal-United (JD-U) candidate and wife of another 'Bahubali' Ajay Singh.

Hina has unsuccessfully contested twice. Kavita is also a JD-U legislator from the Daraundha assembly seat and is making Lok Sabha polls debut.

Hina is attempting to create her own space as a politician trying to convince people that her agenda is development. Her opponents are stating voting for her would mean a return of Bahubali turned politician Shahabuddin. In 2014 Hina lost to Om Prakash Yadav of BJP.

In Maharajganj Lok Sabha constituency, it is fight between two Rajputs. Sitting BJP’s MP Janardan Singh Sigriwal is pitted against Randhir Singh of RJD. Randhir is the son of Bahubali and former Parliamentarian Prabhunath Singh. Prabhunath has been convicted in a murder case and is presently in Hazaribag jail.

Interestingly, former Bihar chief minister Lalu Yadav’s brother-in-law Anirudh Prasad Yadav alias Sadhu Yadav is also contesting from the Bahujan Samaj party. Recently he held a road show which was attended by Bollywood actor Rajpal Yadav. This event turned out to be a crowd puller.

Maharajganj seat is dominated by Rajputs and for this the place is called second “Chittorgarh,” the first being Aurangabad. The constituency also has a sizable population of Muslims, Yadavs and other backward classes.

A political analyst said in that in Maharajganj the Rajput votes will be split between two Rajput candidates. “The candidate managing to corner Muslims, Yadavs and other backward classes will be winner in this constituency. Sadhu will split Yadav votes.”

In Motihari, the sugarcane growing belt of Bihar, closed sugar mills is an election issue. Union agriculture minister, Radha Mohan Singh is seeking re-election from East Champaran seat.

Motihari is the district headquarters of East Champaran, the place where Mahatma Gandhi started his first Satyagraha in 1917.

There have been talks for revival of Motihari Sugar Mill. Rameswar kumar, a voter of this constituency told ET, “People are angry with Radha Mohan Singh who is several times MP but failed to revive the sugar mill. When Nitish Kumar came in power in 2005, he promised that all sugar mills will be revived including the one in Motihari. In 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that in his next visit he would sip tea with sugar from this mill. However nothing happened.”

In 2008 the Nitish Kumar-led government invited “request for qualification” for 15 closed sugar mills. UPA’s partner Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) has fielded Akash Kumar Singh from this seat.