Lok Sabha elections in Bihar: Muslims hold the key in Purnia seat

PATNA: Purnia Lok Sabha constituency is poised for a direct contest between Santosh Kushwaha of JD(U) and Uday Singh alias Pappu Singh of Congress. Kushwaha had won the seat by defeating Pappu Singh by a margin of over 1.16 lakh votes despite Modi wave in 2014. JD(U) had contested the last parliamentary election alone.


Pappu, who had contested the 2014 election on the BJP ticket, has switched over to Congress, which is part of the RJD-led Grand Alliance in Bihar. Pappu had earlier served the constituency twice — in 2004 and 2009.

Kushwaha is mainly banking on the Hindutva plank while Pappu is depending on M-Y (Muslim-Yadav) vote bank of RJD. Besides, Pappu is a Rajput and his caste has a sizeable number of voters in the constituency.

Locals said Kushwaha is primarily trying to woo the backward, extremely backward and SC/ST voters, who together constitute around 5 lakh of the population there. As per rough estimates, there are around 1.5 lakh Yadavs, followed by 1.25 lakh Brahmins and 1.25 lakh Rajputs in Purnia constituency. On an average, 40% of the total population in Purnia are Muslims.

“National issues will dominate the scene this time. Local issues like road, electricity and health services are of no importance,” said Ram Pravesh Singh (55) of Waysi in Purnia district.

Purnia Lok Sabha constituency covers Kasba, Rupauli, Dhamdaha, Purnia and Korha assembly segments. The National Highway-31 crosses the district headquarters town. Agriculture is the main source of income for majority of the residents. Maize and banana are the main crops.

Around 10 lakh young voters in the age group of 18 and 25 years are also likely to play key role in deciding the fate of 16 candidates in the fray. Purnia, a key constituency of Seemanchal, will vote in the second phase on April 18, said Ratnesh Kushwaha of Purnia town.

Political observers said the fight would have been more interesting had Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav been in the fray. Pappu, the sitting MP from Madhepura, had earlier announced to contest from Purnia but later dropped the idea and decided to try his luck from Madhepura only.

Manoj Kumar Gupta, who runs a sweet shop-cum-restaurant at Singhia, said, “People in this area and everywhere probably are talking about only Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But how things will turn towards the end on polling day, I can’t say.”