E-Paper
Bihar Assembly Election 2020: Madhepura seat set for a triangular contest
The constituency is currently held by Rashtriya Janata Dal’s (RJD) Chandra Shekhar.
Madhepura assembly constituency is one of the 78 seats that are going to polls in the third phase of the Bihar assembly elections on November 7. The constituency which falls in the Madhepura Lok Sabha seat is currently held by Rashtriya Janata Dal’s (RJD) Chandra Shekhar.
What makes the contest on this seat interesting is that out of the 78 seats, Madhepura is one of the 65 where Yadavs have a sizeable population - around 40 per cent. The Nitish Kumar-led ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the RJD-led grand alliance, therefore have high stakes in the seat as they are hoping to get a slice of the Yadav votes. This is evident as both chief minister Nitish Kumar and Rahul Gandhi (for grand alliance) have addressed massive rallies in the region.
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As per the seat agreement between alliance partners JD(U) and BJP, the former has fielded its candidate in Madhepura this year. And it has chosen Nikhil Mandal, the grandson of former chief minister and chairman of Mandal Commission recommendations report on job reservations, B P Mandal. From the grand alliance, the RJD has again given a chance to Chandra Shekhar to defend the seat. Another prominent candidate from the seat is Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav who is contesting from the Jan Adhikar Party - Loktantrik (JAP-L). Pappu Yadav, former MP and muscleman politician is a prominent Yadav face in the region, thus being a direct threat to JD(U) and RJD candidates.
In 2015, Chandra Shekhar had defeated BJP’s Vijay Kumar by 37,642 votes. But the seat is not going to be a cakewalk for the RJD this time as in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, it had lost all parliamentary seats in this heartland of Yadavs including Madhepura, which was won by Dinesh Chandra Yadav of the JD(U).
As per the voter list of 2019, the assembly seat had a total number of 3,19,658 voters in Madhepura constituency. The counting of the votes will be done on November 10.
