Bihar assembly election 2020: Will Afaque Alam of Congress win Kasba for third straight term?

Alam will be up against Pradeep Kumar Das for third straight assembly polls. However, this time, Das is contesting for Chirag Paswan’s LJP after jumping ship from the BJP.

Kasba is an assembly constituency in Bihar’s Purnia district and comes under the state’s Purnia Lok Sabha constituency. Congress’ Mohammed Afaque Alam is a two-term sitting MLA from the Kasba assembly seat, while the Lok Sabha MP from the Purnia parliamentary seat is Santosh Kumar Kushwaha of the Janata Dal(United).

An election official marks a voter’s finger with indelible ink after casting their ballots during the second phase of Bihar assembly election at Bankipur constituency in Patna, Bihar, India, on Tuesday, November 03, 2020. (Photo by Parwaz Khan / Hindustan Times)

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In both the 2015 and 2010 assembly polls, Alam had defeated Pradeep Kumar Das of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In 2015, a total of 182,559 out of 264,331 voters from this constituency had cast their votes. Of these while Alam won 81,633 or 44.74% votes, Das was the runner-up with 79,838 or 43.75% votes.

For the ongoing elections, Afaque Alam has once again been fielded by the Congress, and will be up against a number of candidates including Pradeep Kumar Das, who is now contesting as a Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) candidate, as well as Rajendra Yadav of the Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular), an ally of the BJP.

Kasba, which is among the final 78 seats going to polls in the third and final phase on November 7, has a total of 420 polling stations and 283,417 eligible voters. Of these, 146,851 are males, 136,553 are females while 13 candidates are from the third gender.

The Bihar assembly elections began with the first phase of polling on October 28 with 71 of the state’s 243 assembly constituencies going to polls. 94 constituencies witnessed polling in the second phase on November 3. Counting of votes, meanwhile, will take place on November 10.

Bihar CM and JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar is the chief ministerial candidate of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which, among others, also comprises the BJP. Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has fielded Tejashwi Yadav as the chief ministerial face of the party-led opposition alliance, the Mahagathbandhan, which also comprises the Congress and the Left parties.