Parties stick to tested formulae as north Bihar gears up to vote on May 7 

Madhepura, Araria, Supaul, Khagaria, and Jhanjharpur Lok Sabha constituencies in Bihar gear up for the 2024 general election.

“Rome Pope ka, Madhepura Gope ka [What Rome is for Pope, Madhepura is for Yadavs],” goes a saying in Bihar’s Madhepura Lok Sabha constituency, one of the five in north Bihar that would go to polls in the third phase of the 2024 general election on May 7. The other seats are Jhanjharpur, Supaul, Araria, and Khagaria.

In Madhepura, National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate and sitting MP Dinesh Chandra Yadav of the Janata Dal (United) is contesting against the Opposition mahagathbandhan’s (grand alliance) Kumar Chandradeep of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). With the Yadav population more concentrated in Madhepura, an MP from the community has always represented the constituency. RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav represented it twice, veteran socialist leader Sharad Yadav four times, Pappu Yadav won here in 2014 and now, JD(U) has repeated Mr. Dinesh Chandra Yadav against Mr. Chandradeep, son of former MP and educationist ‘Ravi’ Ravindra Kumar Yadav.

With over 19 lakh voters, the Madhepura Lok Sabha constituency comprises six Assembly seats: Alamnagar, Sonbarsa, Mahishi, Madhepura, Bihariganj and Saharsa.

In 2019, Mr. Dinesh Chandra Yadav defeated RJD nominee Sharad Yadav while Mr. Pappu Yadav finished third. NOTA (None Of The Above) received 38,450 votes and surprisingly finished fourth ahead of 10 other candidates.

B.P. Mandal, who was the chairman of the Second Backward Classes Commission, popularly known as “Mandal Commission”, was the first MP from Madhepura. He hailed from an influential Yadav family in Madhepura. Mr Mandal also served as the seventh Chief Minister of Bihar for 30 days in 1968.

In Araria, the NDA has reposed faith in its sitting MP Pradeep Kumar Singh of the BJP against RJD candidate Mohammed Shahnawaz Alam. In 2019, the RJD had given ticket to Mr. Shahnawaz Alam’s elder brother Sarfaraj Alam, who lost the poll. Recently, Mr. Sarfaraj Alam was caught on camera crying in a workers’ meeting for being denied RJD candidacy. Both are sons of veteran Muslim leader from the region and former Union Minister Mohammed Taslimuddin who won the Araria seat in 2014 defeating BJP candidate Pradeep Kumar Singh, despite the “Modi wave” sweeping the region at that time. The late Taslimuddin was an influential leader of not only Araria but of the entire Seemanchal region.

Mr. Singh is in the fray for the fifth time though he faces rebellion from a BJP veteran in the constituency, Janardan Yadav, who is supporting Independent candidate Shatrughan Kumar Suman. Mr. Suman belongs to the Extremely Backward Class which holds over 3 lakh votes in the constituency.