E-Paper
Bihar Assembly Election 2020: CPI-ML leader Satyadeo Ram aims to retain Darauli seat
BJP has fielded Ramayan Manjhi against CPI-ML candidate Satyadeo Ram, the sitting MLA from the seat.
Darauli, the reserved assembly constituency located in Siwan district, is one of the 94 seats that are going to polls in the second phase of the Bihar assembly elections. In the Bihar Assembly Election 2020, from the NDA the seat has gone to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which has fielded Ramayan Manjhi as its candidate. From the Grand Alliance, the reserved seat for Scheduled Caste candidate went to Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist (CPI-ML). It has nominated the sitting MLA from the seat, Satyadeo Ram, from the Darauli seat. Independent candidate Shiv Kumar Manjhi is also in the fray.
The RJD is hoping to secure the Darauli assembly seat through its alliance with the CPI-ML, which is currently the strongest among the Left parties in the state. Rather than entering in an alliance with single-caste parties like Upendra Kushwaha’s Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) and Mukesh Sahni’s Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP), the RJD gave 29 seats to the Left - 19 of which have been given to the CPI-ML.
Satyadeo Ram is one of the three sitting legislators of CPI-ML, who are seeking reelection and is one of the most prominent leaders of the party. Notably, since 2010, the Darauli seat has seen a contest between Satyadeo Ram and Ramayan Manjhi. Manjhi defeated Satyadeo in 2010 but lost against him in 2015. One of the main focuses of Satyadeo Ram’s campaign has been the plight of the returning migrant labourers after the nationwide coronavirus lockdown.
Click here for full coverage of Bihar Assembly Election 2020.
In the 2015 Bihar assembly elections when there were 18 candidates in the fray, CPI-ML candidate Satydeo Ram won the polls upstaging the BJP’s Ramayan Manjhi by a margin of 9,584 votes. Satyadeo Ram got a total of 49,576 votes, while Ramayan Manjhi secured 39,992 votes. The RJD leader Parmatama Ram stood third in the contest, securing 37,345 votes. The CPI-ML bagged 33.55 per cent of the votes and the BJP candidate 27.07 per cent, while RJD candidate Parmatama Ram ended up with 25.27 per cent.
As per the voter list of 2015, the assembly seat has 288,232 registered voters. Of them, 55.99 per cent were men voters and 45.01 per cent were women voters. The counting of votes will be done on November 10.
