Lok Sabha elections 2019: Heavyweights fight it out in prestige battle; spotlight on Ujiarpur, Begusarai

A prestige battle is being fought in Ujiarpur between the BJP’s Nityanand Rai and RLSP chief Kushwaha, whose party was a member of the NDA till late last year.

The electorate fate of several Bihar stalwarts, including Union minister Giriraj Singh, former National Democratic Alliance (NDA) member Upendra Kushwaha, and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state unit president Nityanand Rai, will be decided in the fourth phase of the Lok Sabha polls on Monday.

Student leader Kanhaiya Kumar, the former president of the students’ union of the Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, is making his electoral debut as the CPI candidate for Begusarai.

Of the five seats, the BJP is contesting three — Darbhanga, Ujiarpur and Begusarai. Alliance partners Janata Dal (United), or JD (U), and Lok Janshakti Party are in the fray for Munger and Samastipur, respectively.

The Grand Alliance comprises the Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Communist Party of India (CPI), Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) and Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM). The Congress is contesting Samastipur and Munger while the RJD will vie for Begusarai and Darbhanga, and RLSP will fight for Ujiarpur.

A prestige battle is being fought in Ujiarpur between the BJP’s Rai and RLSP chief Kushwaha, whose party was a member of the NDA till late last year. Kushwaha, a former Union minister, quit the government earlier this year disgruntled with the BJP’s seat-sharing deal with Nitish Kumar’s JD(U).