Bihar third phase today

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Former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi of the RJD, whose political fortunes would be decided in two Yadav-dominated constituencies in Bihar’s third-phase Assembly polls for 48 seats on Thursday, faces her life’s toughest electoral battles in the party’s pocket boroughs.

Ms Devi, the wife of RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, has put in all the might of her family and party along with that of ally LJP to win in Raghopur in Vaishali district and Sonepur in Saran district. She represented Raghopur in Bihar’s outgoing Assembly, having won the seat with a thin margin of 5,290 votes in the October 2005 polls, and served as the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly. But most voters here bitterly complain that she never visited the constituency in the past five years after winning.
Sonepur was chosen by the RJD for Ms Devi, one of the 65 women among the 785 candidates vying for the 48 seats, because Mr Yadav sensed the public disenchantment with his wife in Raghopur, a seat she has won thrice — in the 2000 bypolls and in both the polls held in 2005. Sonepur is the seat Mr Yadav won in the 1970s to enter the Bihar Assembly for the first time. He denied a party ticket to Sonepur’s sitting RJD legislator Ramanuj Prasad to ensure Ms Devi reaches the Assembly.
Despite both Mr Yadav and his young cricketer son Tejaswi campaigning for Ms Devi and the semi-literate former chief minister visiting nearly every village in both the constituencies like never before, she faces fierce challenges from the JD(U)’s Satish Prasad, also a Yadav, in Raghopur and the BJP’s Vinay Singh in Sonepur.
Interestingly, Singh is the samdhi of the RJD chief’s newfound Rajput friend and former JD(U) MP Prabhunath Singh, who recently joined the RJD.
Despite leaders of the RJD-LJP hoping that a chunk of Rajput votes for Devi could ensure her victory in Sonepur, analysts say such shifts of caste vote may have become impossible.
Six serving and two former ministers are in the fray among the 785 candidates vying for the 48 seats in north-western Bihar’s six districts — Siwan, Saran, Gopalganj, Vaishali, East Champaran and west Champaran. Over 1.03 crore registered voters would cast their votes through 16,671 EVMs at 10,814 polling booths. Security arrangements have been beefed up by deployment of state police and central forces in all the six districts.