“This time, we will vote for local boy Kanhaiya Kumar,” Dilip Sharma, 45, says.
Mr. Sharma lives in Bihat-Masalanpur village of Begusarai, the Lok Sabha constituency where the CPI has fielded the former JNU Students’ Union president against firebrand BJP leader and Union Minister Giriraj Singh.
Mr. Singh was reluctant to contest after the BJP swapped his Nawada seat with the Lok Janshakti Party.
Mr. Kumar and Mr. Singh come from the upper caste Bhumihar community which, with a 4.5 lakh population, is a dominant caste in the constituency. There is a sizeable number of Muslim (2.5 lakh), Yadav (80,000) and Extremely Backward Caste (about 1 lakh) voters.
In 2014, BJP candidate Bhola Prasad Singh won here, defeating RJD candidate Tanveer Hassan by over 60,000 votes. Mr. Hassan, again in the poll ring on RJD ticket, hopes to win the seat with the possible split of the Bhumihar votes between his two rivals.
Begusarai is known as the “Leningrad of Bihar” as it has a sizeable number of CPI supporters across caste lines. In 2014, the BJP got 39.73% of the votes, RJD 34.32% and CPI candidate Rajendra Prasad 17.87%. Yogendra Sharma of the CPI won the seat in 1967.
The Congress, the RJD and the JD(U) have been bagging the seat, but the Left vote bank has been intact with its candidates coming at second or third position. “Left supporters and sympathisers across the country have been keenly watching the electoral battle of Begusarai,” political analyst Ajay Kumar told The Hindu . All Left parties in the State have extended their support to Mr. Kumar.
“Like in Nawada, the BJP tried to incite communal tension in Muslim areas such as Ballia, Rosera, Pokharia, Patel Chowk and Bathauli of Begusarai too, but we reached these places in time and foiled their plot. We underlined that Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians all are brothers,” Mr. Kumar told The Hindu on Saturday.
“We’ll not allow Singh to make Begusarai another Nawada where politics has been completely polarised,” Surendra Sharma, a farmer at Teghra, said.
After being denied ticket for Nawada, Mr. Singh has been sulking in Delhi, saying, “I fail to understand why among all Union Ministers from Bihar only my constituency was changed.”
However, after party chief Amit Shah assuaged his “hurt feelings”, Mr. Singh landed in Patna and rushed to meet Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. The next day he was in Begusarai and kicked off his campaign in his inimitable style.
“My fight is against anti-nationals … those leaders who are asking the Centre for proof of India’s air strike against Pakistan are not connected with ground realities … I am sure the people of Begusarai will give them a befitting reply,” he said.
A group of JNU alumni and Independent MLA from Vadgam (Gujarat) Jignesh Mevani, along with popular YouTuber Wali Rahmani, are camping in Begusarai and canvassing for Mr. Kumar.
