Electioneering comes to end for Bochaha byelection, polling on April 12

Electioneering for the by-elections in Bochaha (reserve) constituency in Muzaffarpur came to an end on Sunday with top leaders of the ruling coalition and the opposition making a fervent appeal to the electors to vote for their candidates.

PATNA: Electioneering for the by-elections in Bochaha (reserve) constituency in Muzaffarpur came to an end on Sunday with top leaders of the ruling coalition and the opposition making a fervent appeal to the electors to vote for their candidates.

RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav addresses a public meeting at Bochaha assembly constituency in Muzaffarpur on Sunday. (Santosh Kumar/HT Photo)

The constituency, reserved for the scheduled caste, will undergo polling on Tuesday amidst elaborate security arrangements. Around 20 booths have been declared sensitive in view of the Maoists’ activities in the area.

On Sunday, chief minister Nitish Kumar addressed a public meeting in Musahri area of the constituency and exhorted the people to support the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nominee, Baby Kumari, and strengthen the confidence of the ruling alliance to tone up the state’s delivery system and ensure development with justice.

Many senior leaders of the BJP, including state party chief Sanjay Jaiswal, minister Janak Ram, and deputy speaker Maheshwar Hazari urged the people to vote in the name of good governance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his commitment to serve the downtrodden.

Opposition leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, however, continued to mount its offensive against the BJP-JD(U) coalition during his public meetings. “Nothing moves in the police stations without greasing the palm of officials. More than 80 scams took place in the past seven years, while price rise has touched a historic high,” said Yadav, while urging the electors to vote for the RJD nominee Amar Kumar Paswan, son of sitting MLA Musafir Paswan, whose death has necessitated the byelections.

Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) chief Mukesh Sahni, who is battling for his survival in politics after being kicked out of the NDA, called upon the people to help his party nominee, Gita Kumari (daughter of former RJD stalwart Ramai Ram), to teach the bigger parties a lesson to strangulate the son of a Dalit community. The last time VIP managed to register a victory on the seat was when its candidate Musafir Paswan, then the NDA candidate, wrested the seat by defeating RJD’s nominee Ramai Ram by a margin of over 11,000 votes.

The Congress has also fielded Tarun Chaudhary as its nominee after its bid to resume electoral alliance with the RJD of the VIP did not work out.

While the VIP is vouching for sympathy after being ditched by both BJP and the RJD, the seat is equally prestigious for the BJP as well as the RJD for their bid to prove their electoral dominance. Though the seat is reserved for the SC, the Bhumihar caste is considered the key factor to influence the voting pattern in the constituency.

In 2015, Baby Kumari, who had then contested as an Independent, won the seat by defeating her nearest rival Ramai Ram of the RJD. Later Kumari joined the BJP.

A section of senior BJP leaders of the district, however, were disenchanted over the nomination of Kumari by marginalizing the claims of committed workers and staged a protest in front of Bihar BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal at the party’s meeting in Muzaffarpur on Saturday.