Patna May 30 (IANS): Karakat and Patliputra Lok Sabha seats in Bihar is set to witness a close contest after AIMIM fielded its candidates from both seats making the contest triangular between the INDIA bloc, NDA and AIMIM.
The remaining eight Lok Sabha in Bihar will go to polls in the seventh and last phase on June 1.
AIMIM has fielded Priyanka Chaudhary to contest from the Karakat seats while RJD's old ally Farooq Raza has been given the ticket to contest from Pataliputra.
RJD Spokesperson Chitranjan Gagan: “Owaisi knows his candidates will not win in both the seats. Still, he has given the ticket only to cut the votes of the INDIA bloc.”
He said that Priyanka Choudhary comes from an Extremely Backward Caste (EBC) family. “Everyone knows which votes will she cut. EBC is the INDIA bloc’s core voters,” Gagan said.
Another RJD leader said that the entry of Bhojpuri actor and singer Pawan Singh as an independent candidate from the Karakat Lok Sabha will take a sizable vote bank of upper castes, which are core voters of BJP and NDA in Bihar.
“In retaliation, the AIMIM deliberately fielded a candidate in the Karakat to cut the votes of the INDIA bloc,” he said.
In Patliputra, AIMIM has fielded Farooq Raza, from the Muslim community. Here, the main contest is between BJP’s Ram Kripal Yadav and Misa Bharti of RJD.
As a Muslim is a core vote bank of RJD in Bihar, the presence of AIMIM candidates will definitely hurt Misa Bharti. RJD Chief Lalu Prasad Yadav also met with Muslim clerics in Phulwarisharif.
“The idea was to give a message to the Muslim community to vote for RJD and not AIMIM,” a RJD leader said.
Karakat, which is a Yadav and Kushwaha-dominated area, has more than 18, 72,000 voters. The constituency has a good number of upper-caste and Muslim voters. The Mallah votes are quite high in the extremely backward. Dalit-Mahadalit voters also play a decisive role.
There are around 3.4 lakh Yadavs, 2.7 lakh Muslims, Koiri-Kurmi together 2.3 lakh, Rajputs 2.1 lakh, Nishads 1.85 lakh, 90 thousand Brahmins and 75 thousand Bhumihars in the Karakat Lok Sabha seat.
Priyanka Chaudhary of AIMIM is a woman district councillor from the most backward caste. In 2021, both Priyanka and her mother-in-law contested the elections. Priyanka contested the Zila Parishad and her mother-in-law Ramdulari Devi contested the Mukhiya election and won. Priyanka is the district councillor of Nasriganj West and comes from the Nishad community.
Farooq Raza of AIMIM is a former state General Secretary of RJD and resides in the Muslim-dominated Phulwari Sharif locality of Patna. He is also an engineer and has worked for Misa Bharti in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
Patliputra Lok Sabha seat, located in western Patna, has more than 18 lakh voters.
Patliputra has a significant population of Yadav, Bhumihar, Muslim, Koiri, Kurmi caste and Mahadalit, Extremely Backward. There are six assembly seats within the Patliputra Lok Sabha constituency, which include Maner, Danapur, Masaudhi, Bikram, Paliganj and Phulwari Sharif. Phulwari is dominated by the Muslim population.
AIMIM State President and MLA Akhtarul Iman said: “We have a strong claim in both the Lok Sabha seats. We will give better results. Our candidates are educated and have clean images.”
Reacting to Pawan Singh’s popularity Iman said: “He is an artist. Even if he goes to the crematorium, there will be a crowd. The conversion of the crowd into votes is important.”