Patna: First it was Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav who emerged victorious from Purnia Lok Sabha seat in the just-concluded parliamentary elections, and now it is Shankar Singh who won the Rupauli bypolls. What’s common between the two is that both won as Independent candidates, defeating heavyweights fielded by frontline parties, RJD and JD(U).
So, what went wrong with the frontline parties? Analysts say if the defeats are any indication, the masses look disenchanted with both RJD and JD(U) at least in case of Purnia and want to come out of the shackles of castes.
While Lalu Prasad’s RJD banks on support of Muslims and Yadavs, JD(U) led by CM Nitish Kumar, is said to be drawing its strength from Kurmi and Koeri (Kushwaha) voters in addition to Extremely Backward Castes. The JD(U) was also hopeful of getting upper caste votes for being in alliance with the BJP. However, both the parties failed to win the support of the voters in Rupauli having large number of EBC votes. On the other hand, Shankar Singh, who fought as an Independent candidate and comes from upper caste Rajput got the lion’s share of votes.
“Both Lalu and Nitish looked sure to get their caste men’s support for obvious reasons, but people chose other way and voted for Independent candidate leading to his victory. This is a big message for both the leaders,” commented a political expert from Purnia. “RJD and JD(U) must rethink their poll strategy,” he said, asserting their raising of caste survey issue too failed to leave impact on the polls.
Bypolls to Rupauli had become a matter of prestige both for RJD and JD(U) because of Bima Bharti. In the last 2020 assembly elections, she had won the seat as a JD(U) candidate but she switched over to RJD to contest the Purnia Lok Sabha seat where she suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of Independent candidate Pappu Yadav. Being the incumbent JD(U) MLA, the RJD fielded Bharti from Rupauli.
What is concerning is that she has considerably lost her ground despite being a part of Grand Alliance. In the Rupauli bypolls, she, as a RJD candidate, was able to garner only 30,619 (17.98%) votes which was less than half of the total 64,324 votes she had polled as JD(U) candidate in 2020 assembly polls to emerge victorious for fourth times in a row.
Her performance in the LS polls from Purnia seat was even worse — she got just 10,968 votes from Rupauli assembly constituency while her two main rivals — Independent candidate Pappu Yadav and JD(U) candidate Santosh Kumar had polled 72,795 and 97,469 votes respectively.
Analysts said the RJD committed a blunder by choosing Bharti over Pappu Yadav for Purnia LS seat and later refused to correct its fault even in Rupauli bypolls.
“The defeat of the RJD candidate backed by Grand Alliance in the Rupauli Assembly byelection needs a serious review. Since the time of Purnia LS polls, the whole matter is going against the opposition alliance in Bihar,” state CPI-ML secretary Kunal said.
He also expressed concern over the way Bharti polled some 11,000 less votes this time as compared to votes received by the Grand Alliance-supported CPI candidate Vikas Chandra Mandal in the 2020 assembly elections.