While the Mahagathbandhan alliance is still negotiating seat-sharing for the upcoming Bihar Assembly polls and the RJD has yet to declare its candidates, the sound of drumbeats rent the air in Raghopur, the constituency of RJD leader and Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Tejashwi Yadav, on Saturday morning.
The RJD stronghold then saw around two dozen horses and a convoy of SUVs, marking the arrival of Prashant Kishor, the election strategist-turned-politician and Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) founder, to officially launch his party’s poll campaign two days after he declared the first list of its 51 candidates.
First of the state’s leaders to hit the campaign trail following the Election Commission (EC)’s declaration of the poll schedule – on November 6 and 11 – Kishor entered the Raghopur constituency from Himatpur Diara near the Ganga bridge. Kishor’s carcade slows down at Rustampur Chowk, where groups of women, men and children stand on both sides of the road.
As Kishor steps out of his vehicle, people put garlands around his neck. Some locals hold his hand and pull him into the crowd. His hands folded, Kishor start interacting with people as media persons gather around him.
After a brief halt, Kishor gets going. His roadshow includes more stops at Kabir Chowk (Mallikpur), Fatehpur, Raghopur Block Office – where he visits a Durga temple – Paharpur East and Chandel Dwar before culminating near Chandel Dwar in the evening.
Kishor had earlier said that he would contest against Tejashwi. His roadshow in Raghopur indicated that he might be testing the waters before deciding whether to contest himself or field someone else from the key seat.
Situated on the banks of the Ganga river, Raghopur in Vaishali district, where locals mainly depend on farming, cattle rearing and ordinary labour work for livelihood, has been a Yadav-dominated region and an RJD bastion from the days of Lalu Yadav, the RJD founder and Tejashwi’s father.
In 2000, Lalu defeated the JD(U)’s Vishundeo Rai in Raghopur, but vacated it for his wife Rabri Devi as he had then also retained his Danapur seat. Rabri defeated the JD(U)’s Veera Devi in the bypoll by a huge margin, and retained the seat in the 2005 polls too. In 2010, however, she lost the seat at the hands of the JD(U)’s Satish Kumar Yadav by a slim margin.
The seat returned to the RJD with Tejashwi’s entry into electoral politics in 2015, when he contested it and beat Satish Kumar Yadav, who fought on the BJP’s ticket, by over 22,700 votes. He went on to become the deputy of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who was then with the Mahagathbandhan. In 2020, Tejashwi trounced Satish by over 38,000 votes.
Kishor’s foray into Raghopur is clearly aimed at challenging Tejashwi’s dominance in the high-profile seat.
“Prashant Kishor’s ideas are good, but he does not have public support. Even if we give our vote, it will be wasted. His principles are good, but they will take time to make an impact. Because caste still comes first in Bihar,” said a local resident Sanjay Kumar Rai.
Umesh Rai, a 60 year-old farmer, said, “Not much development has been done in Raghopur but Tejashwi is connected to the people here. He attends people’s events, stand with them through thick and thin. What else he would do while in the Opposition? When he was Deputy CM for a brief period, he started the construction of a hospital here but the work subsequently stalled. I am sure if his government had been be in power, he will work for us.”
Earlier in the day, before leaving for Raghopur, Kishor said he was going there to engage with local workers and supporters of his party in order to the understand their concerns and issues.
Refraining from answering questions whether he would contest from Raghopur in what could be his electoral debut, he said this would be decided by the JSP when it meets again Sunday to finalise the names of other party candidates.
Kishor however claimed that Tejashwi would lose his Raghopur seat in the polls, just like Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had suffered a defeat in Uttar Pradesh’s Amethi in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Rahul had then won from another seat, Wayanad in Kerala.
“Tejashwi Yadav is reportedly looking for another seat. His situation could mirror that of Rahul Gandhi, who lost in Amethi despite contesting from Wayanad,” Kishor remarked.