As 94 constituencies go to polls in the second phase of Bihar assembly elections, the Janata Dal (United) party looks to retain the Vaishali seat for the third time. While the seat is currently represented by Raj Kishor Singh, who had defeated Hindustani Awam Morcha’s Brishin Patel by 31,061 votes in 2015, the party has fielded 48-year-old Siddharth Patel this time.
Also, the battle for Vaishali, which is also a parliamentary constituency, will be an interesting watch since it is among the few seats where the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) has fielded its candidates against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Apart from five constituencies, the LJP, which has decided to fly alone this election, has maintained its stance in support of the BJP and has not put up candidates from where Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party is contesting.
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JDU has been consistently winning the Vaishali seat since the year 2005. In fact, the 2015 runner up Brishin Patel who is now in HAM was in Nitish Kumar’s JDU earlier. He had won the constituency in February, October 2005, and in 2010.
While the constituency will see a tough fight between Congress’s Sanjeev Singh and JD(U’s) Patel, as many as 12 other candidates are also trying their luck to become the Vaishali MLA. Ajay Kumar Kushwaha of Lok Janshakti Party, Arun Kumar Singh of Bhartiya Sablog Party, Tarun Singh Alias Pintoo of Janvadi Party(Socialist), Nilesh Ranjan of The Plurals Party, Muhamad Awas of Jagrook Janta Party, Ram Nath Ray of Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist), Vinay Paswan of Jan Adhikar Party (Loktantrik) and Sanjay Kumar of Jai Maha Bharath Party are in the poll fray.
{{/usCountry}}While the constituency will see a tough fight between Congress’s Sanjeev Singh and JD(U’s) Patel, as many as 12 other candidates are also trying their luck to become the Vaishali MLA. Ajay Kumar Kushwaha of Lok Janshakti Party, Arun Kumar Singh of Bhartiya Sablog Party, Tarun Singh Alias Pintoo of Janvadi Party(Socialist), Nilesh Ranjan of The Plurals Party, Muhamad Awas of Jagrook Janta Party, Ram Nath Ray of Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist), Vinay Paswan of Jan Adhikar Party (Loktantrik) and Sanjay Kumar of Jai Maha Bharath Party are in the poll fray.
{{/usCountry}}Four candidates- Abhishek Raj, Mithilesh Kumar Singh, Raj Narayan Kumar and Sugandh Kumar- are also fighting independently.
The assembly elections in Bihar are taking place in three phases. While people across 71 constituencies voted on October 28, voters from 94 constituencies will cast their ballot on November 3 and the remaining on November 7. The results of polls across 243 assembly seats, in the first electoral exercise during the Covid-19 pandemic, will be announced on November 10.
Roughly 54.26% of 21.4 million people voted in the first phase. In the second phase, as many as 328,374 eligible voters in the Vaishali constituency shall elect the next MLA. A total of 176289 men, 152,071 women and 14 third gender persons have registered to cast their ballot.