Battle of Mithila intensifies, Balakot strike and reservation issues to be played out in high-voltage campaign

DARBHANGA: With the battle of Mithila region in Bihar reaching its heart for the fourth phase of polls, the ruling BJP has lined up its top leadership right from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath for high-voltage campaign which is expected to revolve around issues of the government’s tough act against terrorism.
Majority of the BJP campaign banners in the region clearly indicates how the party would play it out in the run up to the polls.
If one goes by the BJP workers’ campaign pitch on the ground in the city, soon to be operational new airport here - which had been a long pending demand of urban voters of this entire belt - will also be billed as gift to Mithila by the top leaders during the campaign.
The Union minister and BJP ex-president Nitin Gadkari was here on Monday, present president Amit Shah will land in neighbouring neighbouring Samastipur on Wednesday, Modi to address rally in the city on Thursday while Yogi Adityanath will be in Begusarai on Friday showing the party’s aggressive line of poll pitch.
Five constituencies of Mithila region - Darbhanga, Ujiarpur, Samastipur, Begusarai and Munger - will go to polls on April 29.Though all these constituencies have good roads, the virtually non-existent other civic infrastructure gives one an impression of rural folks being relatively better off than their semi-urban counterparts in these constituencies as electricity problem is no longer an issue in villages and they have cleaner and more open space to live.
Many farmers, however, faced loss to their standing crops due to heavy rains and hailstorm early this month, putting them in extreme distress condition - a point which is being flagged by grand alliance local (Mahagathbandhan) campaigners.
“I have lost my standing wheat crop. The yield has finally reduced to half. No one from administration, however, reaches us so far to assess the damage for compensation,” said Dinesh Choudhary of Bheriyahi village in Darbhanga constituency.
“It also affected Mango and Litchi fruits,” said Madan Jha of Katha village in Benipur block.
Nevertheless, these matters do not appear to be major issues at this juncture specifically in Darbhanga where the BJP’s lone Maithil Brahmin face Gopaljee Thakur will face RJD’s Abdul Bari Siddique who has strong base among Muslim voters. If one asks any of the Muslim voters about their choices, they express allegiance to the RJD candidate. One may, however, find Dalit voters completely silent and this is giving jitters to the RJD - the party largely depends on Muslim, Yadav and Dalit votes in the constituency.
Its main pitch for campaign is reservation issue which the party workers can be heard telling people during campaign as to how the BJP’s move to give 10% reservation to poor among upper castes would eventually cut their shares - the matter which was vehemently denied by the ruling party during the campaign.
“It is expected that all the top BJP leaders will pick up the issue while clarifying it to Dalits and OBCs during the campaigns,” said a BJP worker, Bhushan Thakur.
In neighbouring Ujiarpur, the grand alliance’s RLSP leader Upendra Kushwaha is contesting against the BJP state president Nityanand Rai. Begusarai has already attracted nation-wide attention due to presence of former JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar as CPI candidate against BJP leader Giriraj Singh (both Bhumihar - a dominant caste in the district). The seat will see a triangular contest where the RJD has fielded Tanveer Hasan.
In Samastipur which is SC reserved constituency, the sitting Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) MP Ram Chandra Paswan - party’s chief Ram Vilas Paswan’s younger brother - is contesting against Congress’s Ashok Kumar.
In Munger, the NDA has fielded Rajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh against Congress candidate Neelam Devi, wife of Mokama strongman Anant Singh.