Candidates taking on each other for first time in four out of five LS seats in Bihar

Patna: In four out of the five Lok Sabha seats that are scheduled to go to polls on May 20, the candidates of the NDA and Grand Alliance will be contesting against each other for the first time.

The Lok Sabha elections for the fifth phase will take place in Saran, Hajipur (SC Reserved), Sitamarhi, Madhubani and Muzaffarpur constituencies.

In Saran, senior BJP leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy is contesting against Rohini Acharya of the RJD for the first time.

This is also Rohini Acharya’s debut election as she has not contested any polls in the past.

On his part, Rajiv Pratap Rudy contested against RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections and lost. In 2014, he contested against Rabri Devi and won that election. Rudy also defeated Chandrika Rai in 2019.

Hajipur is considered a hot seat in Bihar as Chirag Paswan is contesting from here. He is the sitting MP from Jamui and is contesting from Hajipur for the first time and is facing his opponent Shiv Chandra Ram of the RJD also for the first time.

In 2019, Pashupati Kumar Paras won the election on an LJP ticket and Ram Vilas Paswan won from here nine times, including in 2014 and 2009.

In Sitamarhi, the Chairman of the Bihar Legislative Council, Devesh Chandra Thakur is contesting on a JD(U) ticket and his opponent is Arjun Rai of the RJD.

Thakur is a comparative greenhorn as he is contesting the Lok Sabha elections for the first time.

Arjun Rai won this seat in 2009 on a JD(U) ticket but lost it in 2014.

He joined the RJD in 2019 and contested the Lok Sabha election but again lost the battle here. Rai is in the fray as a RJD candidate in this Lok Sabha election too.

In Madhubani, Ashok Kumar Yadav is an outgoing MP from this seat and he is contesting against Ali Ashraf Fatmi of the RJD. Ashok Kumar Yadav defeated Badri Kumar Purbey of the Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) by a big margin in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

In 2009 and 2014, Hukumdev Narayan Yadav of the BJP won the contest from Madhubani. So, this is the first time Ashok Kumar Yadav and Ali Ashraf Fatmi are contesting against each other.

Muzaffarpur is the only constituency in the fifth phase where both the candidates of the NDA and the Grand Alliance have contested in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections as well.

The BJP has given the ticket to Rajbhushan Nishad to contest in Muzaffarpur while Ajay Nishad is the outgoing MP from this seat.

He won the Lok Sabha election in 2014 and 2019 on the BJP’s ticket but the party has not given him the ticket this time. As a result, Ajay Nishad joined the Congress and is contesting against the BJP candidate.

He had defeated Rajbhushan Nishad in 2019 as well. At that time, Rajbhushan Nishad had contested on the ticket of the VIP. In 2009, Ajay Nishad’s father Jay Narayan Nishad won the Lok Sabha election from Muzaffarpur.