E-Paper
Veteran BJP leader Ram Kripal Yadav secures lead in Danapur, RJD trails behind
Ram Kripal Yadav began his political career with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), and was considered a close aide of Lalu Prasad Yadav for decades.
Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader, Ram Kripal Yadav, who is contesting the Bihar assembly election on the BJP ticket from the Danapur constituency, is maintaining a steady lead by a margin of of 22,490 votes, leaving Rashtriya Janata Dal's Rit Lal Roy and others behind.
In the Danapur constituency, the Rashtriya Janata Dal has fielded Rit Lal Roy, while Ram Kripaal Yadav is the NDA candidate.
Ram Kripal Yadav cast his vote at a polling booth in Patna, as the polling for 121 constituencies in the first phase of the election began on Thursday.
The Bihar assembly elections were held in two phases; the first phase of polling took place on November 6, followed by the second on November 11. The counting of votes will take place on November 14.
Who is Ram Kripal Yadav?
Ram Kripal Yadav is a veteran politician from Bihar whose career spans several decades. He actively raises law and order issues in Bihar and publicly criticised the delay in police response following the murder of a BJP leader earlier this year.
Yadav began his political career with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), and he was considered a close aide of former chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav for decades.
He was also a member of the Rajya Sabha from the RJD in July 2010 after he had vacated the Patliputra seat for Lalu Prasad in 2009, which Prasad had lost to his friend-turned-foe Ranjan Yadav of JD(U).
Ram Kripal Yadav also served as Deputy Mayor of Patna Municipal Corporation from 1992-93. He was also a member of the Legislative Council from 1993-96.
Ram Kripal Yadav's defection to the BJP
He then defected from the RJD to the BJP in 2014, after being denied a ticket by Lalu Yadav's party.
On joining the BJP, he contested the 2014 Lok Sabha Election from Patliputra constituency and defeated Lalu Yadav's daughter, Misa Bharti, marking a major political shift.
He was then inducted into Prime Minister Narendra Modi's first cabinet, where he served as Minister of State for Rural Development in the central cabinet in Delhi from 2014 to 2019.
