E-Paper
Lok Sabha Elections 2019: It’s Rajput vs Rajput in Bihar’s Maharajganj seat
This is the debut election for Randhir Singh, the RJD candidate from Maharajganj while the BJP candidate Janardan Singh Sigriwal is the sitting MP.
The Maharajganj constituency in Bihar is called the “second Chittorgarh”, after Aurangabad, due to the dominance of Rajputs in the electoral politics here for decades. This time again, there are two Rajput leaders are pitted against each other here — Janardan Singh Sigriwal of Bharatiya Janata Party, the sitting MP, and Randhir Singh of Rashtriya Janata Dal.
This is the debut election for Randhir Singh, son of four-time former MP and ‘bahubali’ Prabhunath Singh, who lost to Sigriwal in 2014 in a keenly fought electoral battle, by around 38,000 votes. But the last time, Janata Dal (United) had fought separately and its candidate had bagged nearly 1.5 lakh votes, and this time, those votes may go to the BJP-JD(U) combine. That makes it a tougher fight for RJD, which leads the opposition Grand Alliance in Bihar.
However, Randhir is banking on his father’s legacy and influence, besides the GA support, to turn the tide in his favour. His father has had huge influence in the area and won on the tickets of Janata Dal, Samata Party, and RJD at different times. Even with the Modi wave of 2014, he lost by a small margin. Now, his son is in the fray, as Prabhunath Singh is serving a jail term in a murder case.
Lok Sabha Elections 2019: Maharajganj constituency in Bihar
Sigriwal, who was earlier a minister in the Nitish Kumar cabinet and won assembly elections four times, is confident in the company of JD(U), which makes the National Democratic Alliance arithmetically potent, though the ground realities of Maharajganj and the influence of Prabhuanth Singh could be a big challenge.
There are 11 candidates in the fray in Maharajganj, including Bahujan Samaj Party’s Anirudh Prasad alias Sadhu Yadav, former MP and brother-in-law of RJD chief Lalu Prasad. BSP has a good influence in the areas bordering Uttar Pradesh.
Though the dominance of the upper caste, especially Rajputs, is well-known in Maharajganj, Muslims, Yadavs, and other backward classes also constitute a sizeable number in the constituency. Their voting behaviour and a split in GA votes could make a difference to Randhir. In 2014 also, Maharajganj saw a few other parties, apart from the three main contenders, gathering more than 11% votes.
Predominantly an agricultural area, the constituency comprises six assembly segments falling under the Saran and Siwan districts. In the 2015 assembly elections, GA had routed the BJP. Three of the six seats were won by RJD, while two went to JD(U) and one to the Congress. That makes the contest interesting this time.
Like other constituencies, Maharajganj, too, is afflicted with the problem of youth migration and struggling agriculture. There has also been a long-pending demand for making Maharajganj a district. Sitting MP Sigriwal said that he had done a lot for his constituency in the past five years in terms of construction of roads and ghats.
Randhir refuted this, saying, “Whatever development Maharajganj witnessed was during the tenure of my father. Development will be a big issue this time, as there is no wave for Sigriwal to ride on. People have seen the neglect of Maharajganj under the ‘double-engine’ government.”
