1.62cr voters to seal fate of 134netas in state’s 8 LS seats today

Patna: Eight constituencies in the state – Nalanda, Patna Sahib, Patliputra, Ara, Buxar, Sasaram, Karakat and Jehanabad – will go to polls in the seventh and last phase of Lok Sabha elections amid tight security on Saturday.Despite concerns over scorching heat that led to lower voter turnout in some of the previous phases of elections in the state, the authorities concerned have left no stone unturned to ensure participation of electorate in large numbers in the festival of democracy on Saturday.

The last leg of elections will see 1,62,04,594 voters exercising their franchise to decide the fate of 134 candidates, including 12 women.In the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), five BJP and two JD(U) candidates are in the fray. The eighth seat in the last phase – Karakat – is being contested by the Rashtriya Lok Morcha where party president Upendra Kushwaha is contesting. On the other hand, RJD has fielded three, CPI-ML three and Congress two candidates from the opposition INDIA bloc in the last phase.Prominent among those whose fate will be sealed in the final phase of Lok Sabha elections are Union minister R K Singh (Ara), Former Union minister Ravishankar Prasad (Patna Sahib), Ram Kripal Yadav (Patliputra), Misa Bharti (Patliputra), Kaushlendra Kumar (Nalanda), Upendra Kushwaha (Karakat) and Independent candidate Pawan Singh (Karakat).There are 29 candidates in the fray in Nalanda, 17 in Patna Sahib, 22 in Patliputra, 14 each in Ara and Buxar, 10 in Sasaram, 13 in Karakat and 15 in Jehanabad. Among the 1,62,04,594 voters in the eight constituencies, there are 85,01,620 men, 77,02,559 women and 415 third gender.Stakes are particularly high for the BJP in the final phase as it seeks to retain five of these seats, which made up for more than a quarter of its state-wide tally of 17.Union minister R K Singh is aiming at a hat-trick from Ara, where his principal challenger is Sudama Prasad, a sitting MLA of the CPI(ML) which has expanded its footprint in the state rapidly ever since it allied with the RJD and the Congress ahead of assembly polls and came up with best-ever performance of 12 seats.In Patna Sahib, veteran BJP parliamentarian Ravi Shankar Prasad is aiming at a second consecutive term. His principal challenger is Congress spokesperson Anshul Avijit, whose mother Meira Kumar is a former Lok Sabha speaker, and his late maternal grandfather Jagjivan Ram had been a deputy PM.In Patliputra, RJD president Lalu Prasad’s eldest daughter Misa Bharti is trying her luck for the third time. BJP MP Ram Kripal Yadav, a former close aide of Prasad and ex-Union minister, is aiming at a hat-trick here.In Nalanda, the home district of CM Nitish Kumar, sitting MP Kaushlendra Kumar hopes to retain the seat for the party for a record fourth-term. He is up against Sandeep Saurav, a sitting CPI(ML) MLA and former JNU students’ union leader.Karakat is witnessing a multi-cornered fight, which is being most talked about because of Bhojpuri superstar Pawan Singh, who is contesting as an Independent. Singh entered the fray after having earlier turned down a BJP ticket from Asansol in West Bengal. The move has led to his expulsion from the party. Upendra Kushwaha, a former Union minister who heads the Rashtriya Lok Morcha, had won the seat in 2014 but lost it five years later upon quitting NDA. He is hopeful of wresting the seat back following return to the BJP-led coalition. The CPI(ML), which has a strong presence in the area, has fielded Raja Ram Kushwaha, a former MLA and farmer leader.In Sasaram, the BJP has dropped two-term MP Chhedi Paswan to field Shivesh Ram, a former MLA and party’s state general secretary. The reserved seat has formerly been a Congress bastion, with Jagjivan Ram and Meira Kumar together winning it nine times. However, Kumar has backed out of the race and her party has fielded Manoj Kumar, a recent entrant who was formerly with the BSP headed by ex-CM of UP Mayawati.In Jehanabad, the JD(U) has reposed its trust in sitting MP Chandeshwar Prasad Chandravanshi, whose victory margin in 2019, of less than 2,000 votes, was the lowest for any of the 40 constituencies in Bihar. The RJD candidate is Surendra Prasad Yadav, the runner-up of 2019, who had won the seat in 1998.In Buxar, the BJP sprung a surprise by denying Union minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey the chance to run for a third consecutive term. The party hopes its candidate Mithilesh Tiwari, a former MLA and state vice president, will retain the seat. However, Tiwari’s bid has met a strong challenge from RJD’s Sudhakar Singh, a sitting MLA whose father Jagadanand Singh heads the party’s state unit and had won the Buxar seat in 2009. Queering the pitch, Anand Mishra, a former Assam cadre IPS officer, who resigned from service nursing political ambitions but did not get a ticket from the BJP which had allegedly promised the same, is also contesting as an Independent.(With agency inputs)