Patna:With Lok Sabha elections inching closer, the political temperature in the country is soaring. The political parties are gearing up to put their best front and ensure their victory.
However, the statistics emerging from the Hindi heartland Bihar reflects that the region is going to witness tough contests.
The poll battle in one of Bihar's high- profile constituency of Jamui is expected to be specifically interesting as it will be witnessing a face-off between two of the most prominent leaders of the region; Lok Janshakti Party leader Chirag Paswan and Rashtriya Lok Samta Party state president Bhudeo Chaudhary.
Chirag Paswan Vs Bhudeo Chaudhary
Chirag accompanied by his father Ram Vilas Paswan filed his nomination for Jamui Lok Sabha seat on Monday. He defeated the Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Sudhansu Kumar Bhaskar and won from this seat in the 2014 Lok Sabha election.
Ram Vilas Paswan's actor- turned politician son, Chirag joined politics in 2011. The young politician took over when his party was going through the worst phase. He proved his political pragmatism and was instrumental in facilitating the sinking party win six out the seven seats it contested in 2014, including the prestigious Jamui seat.
Before Paswan, Bhudeo Chaudhary fought for the Janata Dal (United) and held the seat from 2009. The coalition government has finalised Chaudhary's name from the Jamui LS seat this year.
With the announcement of the names, the political temperature in the district has shot up.
Jamui's political history
After a long break, it was in 2009 that the Jamui Lok Sabha seat regained its individual political identity. Earlier it was merged with the Munger LS seat. Jamui Lok Sabha seat is composed of three districts Jamui, Munger and Sheikhpura areas.
The seat has had a stronghold of Yadavas for a long time and the people here too decide their votes on caste lines. The Yadavas in Jamui make up for nearly 20% of the electorate, a number unmatched by any other caste.
The 'battle'
Chirag, however, managed to swam through the casteism in the district and won the from the Jamui seat in 2014. Considering the work he has done in the constituency in the last five years, the surveys reported that the people are lauding his good work and the chances of him getting back to power seem pretty strong. Chirag too appeared pretty confident while filing the nomination papers and said that he is sure about his victory from Jamui due to the development work he has done.
Stating Narendra Modi as 'the face for development', Chirag said, " In 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has emerged as the face for development in the country and I firmly stand with him for the country's welfare".
On the other hand, Bhudeo Chaudhary too is all set to give a tough challenge to Chirag in the constituency. He is holding several political meetings in the area and is engaging in several public interactions to get a stronghold in the constituency. The fact that a group of rural were unhappy with Chirag's work in the region due to the lack of special attention they received during his governance could prove to be of great benefit for Chaudhary and can assist him in upping his game.
Chaudhary said that his party has resolved to dethrone Modi and make Rahul Gandhi the Prime Minister of the country. He said, "The coalition government will not let NDA win in Bihar. We have strategically laid down our plan for the upcoming polls and will make sure that Tejaswi Yadav becomes the Chief Minister of Bihar."
Jamui's voting demographics
In the 2014 elections, the number of voters here was 15,50,936 out of which only 7,75,639 of these electorates utilised their franchise. There were 4,15,743 males and 3,59,896 females.
The district election officer informed that the total number of voters in the Jamui Lok Sabha is 17,79,396 in which the number of male voters is 905492 whereas the number of women voters are 803740, along with 34 voters from the Third Gender vote category.
Caste equation of Jamui
The constituency is majorly dominated by the Yadavas and the Muslims with over 17 lakh voter count. After the number of voters for the Yadav community, the number of Muslim voters here is highest. There are around 3,50,000 Yadav voters, while the number of Muslim voters is around 2,15,000.
There are 4,00,000 electorates for the other backward castes, whereas the number of Mahadalit voters sums up to around 2,15,00. While the number of upper caste voters is also around two lakhs.
Now it will be interesting to see whether the LJP's fate will shine yet again in Jamui or the people will stand by the coalition government to bring RLSP back to power.
The first phase of voting for the Jamui Lok Sabha constituency will be held on April 11.
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