BJP may have to pay price for ‘ignoring’ Vaishyas | Patna News – Times of India
Patna: The denial of Lok Sabha ticket to a person from the Vaishya (trader) community by the BJP has apparently blighted the prospects of the NDA candidates in at least three constituencies. The three constituencies in question are Sitamarhi that goes to polls on May 20 in the fifth phase, besides Purvi Champaran and Sheohar, where polling will be held in the sixth phase on May 25.
The anger of the trader community people was triggered on March 24, when the BJP released the list of its candidates for 17 seats, dropping its Sheohar sitting MP Rama Devi, as the seat had gone to the kitty of the JD(U) as part of the NDA seat-sharing arrangement.
Rama Devi had been elected from Sheohar in 2009, 2014 and 2019, besides getting elected from Purvi Champaran in 1998. Also, former BJP functionary Sunil Kumar Pintu, who too belonged to trader caste, had won the Sitamarhi Lok Sabha seat on the JD(U) ticket in 2019, but there were clear indications that JD(U) national president and chief minister Nitish Kumar might not field him this time.
Consequently, people of the trader community with allegiance to Vaishya Chetna Manch protested against the denial of ticket to Rama Devi at the gate of the state BJP headquarters a day after the release of the names of its candidates. They insisted that the non-representation of a person from the trader community in the BJP will not go down well with the electorate.
For some time, the state BJP ignored the signs of their protest, knowing fully well that the trader community had been in the saffron camp right from the days of Bharatiya Jan Sangh, and, in fact, they constituted its core.
However, soon, the contrary proposition surfaced in the Jhanjharpur constituency, where the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) candidate from the INDIA bloc Suman Kumar Mahaseth was pitted against its sitting JD(U) MP Ramprit Mandal.
The anger of the trader community people was triggered on March 24, when the BJP released the list of its candidates for 17 seats, dropping its Sheohar sitting MP Rama Devi, as the seat had gone to the kitty of the JD(U) as part of the NDA seat-sharing arrangement.
Rama Devi had been elected from Sheohar in 2009, 2014 and 2019, besides getting elected from Purvi Champaran in 1998. Also, former BJP functionary Sunil Kumar Pintu, who too belonged to trader caste, had won the Sitamarhi Lok Sabha seat on the JD(U) ticket in 2019, but there were clear indications that JD(U) national president and chief minister Nitish Kumar might not field him this time.
Consequently, people of the trader community with allegiance to Vaishya Chetna Manch protested against the denial of ticket to Rama Devi at the gate of the state BJP headquarters a day after the release of the names of its candidates. They insisted that the non-representation of a person from the trader community in the BJP will not go down well with the electorate.
For some time, the state BJP ignored the signs of their protest, knowing fully well that the trader community had been in the saffron camp right from the days of Bharatiya Jan Sangh, and, in fact, they constituted its core.
However, soon, the contrary proposition surfaced in the Jhanjharpur constituency, where the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) candidate from the INDIA bloc Suman Kumar Mahaseth was pitted against its sitting JD(U) MP Ramprit Mandal.
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