Lalu Prasad’s elder son Tej Pratap Yadav of RJD won in Hasanpur against his opponent JD(U)’s Raj Kumar Ray by a margin of over 20,000 votes, as per the Election Commission.
In the second phase of the Bihar assembly election, Tej Pratap went up against formidable JD(U) sitting legislator Rai after shifting base from Mahua in Vaishali to Hasanpur in Samastipur district.
Rai has held the seat since 2010.
PTI’s report said the move out of Mahua came because of the possibility of his estranged wife challenging him there in the election.
Mahua is located near the Parsa assembly segment, a bastion of his estranged wife Aishwarya Rai’s father Chandrika Roy’s family. Their marital dispute case is pending with a Patna Family Court.
The apprehension was not unfounded as Aishwarya was seen taking an active part in the campaign for her father, meeting people of the Parsa constituency and speaking of the “ill- treatment” meted out to her by Lalu Prasad’s family.
But reports suggest Tej Pratap’s move to the “safe” seat of Hasanpur may still be a gamble.
The RJD leader seemed to be leaving nothing to chance and was seen playing cricket with children during campaigning, riding a tractor in a field, playing a flute and eating ‘litti-chokha’ with the people.
But Raj Kumar Rai dubbed him a “parachute candidate” and said, “He knows nothing about Hasanpur. He even does not know the roads in the area and has to move around with the help of locals. Those who don’t know anything about the area what kind of development they can do here?”
Apart from Rai, there are six other candidates in the seat.
The Janadhikar Party of former Madhepura MP and influential Yadav politician Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav also fielded his candidate Arjun Yadav from the seat.
The assembly segment is part of Khagaria Parliamentary seat from where LJP’s Choudhary Mehboob Ali Kaiser is the second consecutive term MP. Chirag Paswan did not field any candidate on the seat which people in the political circles see as a help to Prasad’s son.
Though Yadav voters are the deciding factor on the seat, Muslims and other Backward castes like Kushwahas and Nishads (fishermen) electorate also have significant presence.
According to PTI, the Yadavs and Muslims had voted for Raj Kumar Rai in both 2010 and 2015 state polls, But, since this time the son of a prominent face of the mandal politics (Lalu Prasad) is in fray, Rai cannot count on their total support. The Muslim-Yadav electorate has been the support base of the RJD since its inception nearly 23 years ago.
Tej Pratap Yadav told PTI: “I did a lot of development work in Mahua and on people’s demand have come to Hasanpur to do so in the next five years.”
(With PTI inputs)