Bihar Elections 2020: Battle Lines Drawn Between RJD-BJP For Raghopur Seat; Look At Key Candidates For Phase-II Polls

On 94 seats spread across 17 districts, as many as 1463 candidates will be contesting. Both the sons of former chief minister of the state Lalu Prasad Yadav, Luv Sinha and Pushpam Priya Choudhary among the major contestants in the second phase of the election.

Patna: RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav during an election campaign rally ahead of Bihar assembly polls. (PTI Photo)

Campaigning for the second phase of the Bihar state assembly elections formally ended on Saturday with stage all set for voting to happen on Tuesday, November 3. According to the election commission, around 2.85 crore voters will be deciding the fate of 1463 candidates, out of which 1316 are male candidates and 146 female candidates. With over 94 constituencies spread across 17 districts of the state also known as "Seemanchal" region, out of the 2.85 crore voters, around 1.5 crores are males, 1.35 crores are females and around 980 are transgenders. Here are the key seats which will see polling in the second phase of Bihar Assembly Election 2020: Raghopur Former Chief Minister of the state and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav, also the chief ministerial face of the Grand Alliance, is seeking re-election from the Raghopur seat. He had won the seat on his maiden outing in electoral politics in 2015. His main rival is Satish Kumar of the BJP, who had defeated former chief minister and Tejashwi’s mother Rabri Devi from the same seat in the 2010 polls and had also contested in 2015 where he lost the RJD’s stronghold of Raghopur to Tejashwi. Hasanpur Both the sons of Lalu Yadav are trying their luck in the second phase of the Bihar Assembly election. RJD candidate, the elder son of party chief Lalu Prasad and brother of Tejashwi Yadav, Tej Pratap Yadav is fighting the Bihar assembly from the Hasanpur constituency this year. Tej Pratap has moved out of his constituency Mahua in Vaishali district to Hasanpur in Samastipur and is contesting against two-time sitting MLA Rajkumar Rai of the Janata Dal(United). Bankipur The Bankipur assembly seat is set to see a contest between Congress’ Luv Sinha, BJP’s Nitin Nabin and Pushmpam Priya Choudhary president of the newly formed Plurals Party. Luv Sinha is the son of actor Shatrughan Sinha who lost Patna Sahib to Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in the Lok Sabha polls last year when he fought on a Congress ticket. Incumbent Nitin Nabin is aiming a third term from the seat and has been the head of the state unit of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) till recently and has now been appointed as the party’s in charge for Sikkim. While the third candidate Pushpam Priya Choudhary Daughter of former JDU leader Vinod Chaudhary, a graduate from London School of Economics, launched her political outfit earlier this year in March. Pushpam calls herself the Chief Ministerial candidate of the state and focuses on policymaking. Jhanjharpur Jhanjharpur assembly constituency that falls in the Madhubani district will witness a tight contest between sitting RJD MLA Gulab Yadav and the BJP’s candidate Nitish Mishra. In 2015, the seat had seen the same contest. Nitish Mishra is the vice president of the BJP’s Bihar unit and the son of Jagannath Mishra who served as the chief minister three times. His late uncle Lalit Narayan Mishra was also a well- known politician. Maner The state BJP spokesperson and close aide of the Union minister of state Nityanand Rai, Nikhil Anand is fighting from the Maner assembly seat against two-time sitting MLA of the RJD Bhai Virendra. Nikhil Anand joined politics after a career in journalism and was chosen over Shrikant Nirala who has fought from the Maner seat since 1990. Begusarai The Begusarai assembly seat will witness a contest between sitting Congress’s MLA Amita Bhushan and the BJP’s Kundan Singh. The CPI’s Kanhaiya Kumar, former JNU students’ union president, contested in the Lok Sabha elections in 2019 from Begusarai. Notably, the BJP’s Kundan Singh is one of the richest candidates from the seats going to the polls in the second phase. Govindganj Sitting MLA and the Lok Janshakti Party’s (LJP’s) Raju Tiwari, Congress leader Brajesh Kumar and the BJP’s Sunil Mani Tiwari will be in a triangular fight in Govindganj. The seat is very crucial as the last time the BJP won this seat was 10 years ago. Among the major parties, the RJD is contesting 56 of the 94 seats while its ally Congress is contesting 24. The CPI and CPI(M), which joined the Grand Alliance recently, are fighting four seats each. Quite a few seats are being contested by the CPI(ML), the Left outfit with the strongest presence in Bihar. BJP candidates are in the fray in 46 of the seats, while another 43 are being contested by those with JD(U) tickets. Mukesh Sahni’s VIP, the latest entrant in the NDA, is contesting the remaining five. The LJP is contesting 52 seats, including the two it had won in 2015 contesting as an NDA constituent. The party has fielded one transgender candidate too in this phase.