The National Democratic Alliance candidate Prince Raj of the Lok Janshakti Party is in a direct contest with mahagathbandhan nominee Ashok Kumar of the Congress for the Samastipur (reserved) Lok Sabha seat for which bypoll is scheduled to be held on October 21.
The by-election was necessitated after the sudden demise of the sitting MP Ramchandra Paswan, father of Prince Raj. Ramchandra Paswan who had defeated Ashok Kumar in the last Parliamentary election, was the younger brother of LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan.
While Prince Raj is making his electoral debut on an emotional pitch, Ashok Kumar, Congress MLA from Rosera (reserved) Assembly constituency, is appealing to the people to vote for him to raise their voice in Parliament.
Joint campaigning
On Thursday, all three top Bihar NDA leaders — Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan and Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi — campaigned together for Prince Raj and addressed a public meeting in Samastipur. The NDA leaders appealed to the people to vote for young Prince Raj for the development of the constituency.
There are a total of eight candidates in the fray for the bypoll. Before delimitation the Samastipur seat was known as Rosera (reserved) Lok Sabha seat.
In the 2019 election, Ramchandra Paswan had defeated Ashok Kumar by over 2.5 lakh votes.
Along with the Samastipur Lok Sabha bypoll, five Assembly constituencies — Nathanagar, Simri Bakhtiyarpur, Darounda, Belhar and Kishanganj — will also go to poll on October 21 as the sitting MLAs had won in the Lok Sabha election.
