Bihar’s Kishanganj braces for a three-corner fight

Kishanganj, Bihar's only district with a Muslim majority, poses a challenge for the NDA in the Lok Sabha election.

Kishanganj is the only district of northeast Bihar where the Muslim population is over 68%. It was also the only parliamentary seat that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) lost in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

The Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) candidate Mohammad Jawed (Congress) won the seat, while the Janata Dal (United) and All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen candidates secured the second and third positions, pushing the NDA further down.

This time around, the BJP-led NDA has been predicting that it would win all 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar. Working towards this goal, Kishanganj may still prove to be tricky. Perhaps why the NDA has changed its candidate, fielding Mujahid Alam of the JD(U) in the place of Syed Mahmood Ashraf. However, the Congress and AIMIM have posed their faith in their previous candidates, Mr. Jawed and Akhtarul Iman, respectively.

The sitting Congress MP appears to be headed for a tough fight with AIMIM’s candidate even as the NDA candidate struggles to stay in the race. “Whatever be the result of Kishanganj seat this time, the NDA is not going to win all 40 seats in Bihar because of this constituency,” Mohd. Ahaduddin of Baisi area affirmed to The Hindu.

Among the four Seemanchal (border) districts of northeastern Bihar (Katihar, Araria, Kishanganj and Purnea), Kishanganj has the highest Muslim population (68% of its 17 lakh population); its Hindu population is 31%. It shares a border with Bangladesh and West Bengal. In the 2019 election, 1.06% of the voters had opted for NOTA (none of the above); it had come down from the 1.08% in the 2014 election. In 2019, Bihar was the State that had the highest NOTA vote share of 2%, followed by Andhra Pradesh (1.54%) and Chhattisgarh (1.44%).

Kishanganj Lok Sabha seat comprises six Assembly constituencies — Kishanganj, Thakurganj, Bahadurganj, Kochadhamnan, Baisi and Amour. Four of them are represented by Rashtriya Janata Dal while AIMIM and Congress hold the Amour and Kisangani segments, respectively. The four RJD MLAs had won the 2020 Assembly elections as AIMIM candidates but later switched to the RJD.

“Since I represent Amour in the Assembly, I have no problem there but I have to campaign hard in Baisi and Thakurganj areas,” Mr. Iman told The Hindu on Tuesday just before leaving for a campaign at 9 a.m., escorted by his bodyguards; his residence was merely yards away from his election office in the Singhia Sultanpur area.