Kurhani bypoll: BJP-JD(U) locked in direct contest in Bihar

For the first time after split in August, the parties are pitted against each other in the byelection

After the Janata Dal (United) snapped ties with BJP in August this year to form the Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance) government with Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and other parties, the BJP and JD(U) are for the first time pitted in a direct contest in Kurhani byelection in Muzaffarpur district of north Bihar. The byelection is scheduled on December 5 and results will be out on December 8.

The Kurhani seat had fallen vacant after sitting RJD MLA Anil Kumar Sahani was disqualified from the State Assembly in a fraud case and sentenced to jail. In the byelection, the RJD relinquished its claim on the seat to support ruling alliance partner JD(U), and now the electoral stake for both JD(U) and BJP appears high.

Altogether, 13 candidates are in the fray though a pitched battle is likely between JD(U) candidate Manoj Singh Kushwaha and BJP’s Kedar Prasad Gupta. While both have triumphed here on previous occasions, in the last Assembly election in 2020, Mr. Gupta lost to RJD candidate Anil Kumar Sahani by merely 700 votes. This time, RJD has decided to back the JD(U) candidate as part of a quid pro quo agreement. In the recent bypolls to Mokama and Gopalganj seats, JD(U) had supported RJD candidates.

The Kurhani constituency has 3.12 lakh voters with an estimated scheduled caste (SC) population of 18.4%. Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav campaigned in Kurhani for the JD(U) candidate on Wednesday while CM Nitish Kumar is likely to campaign here on Friday.

JD(U) president Rajeev Ranjan Singh alias Lalan Singh has been campaigning extensively in Kurhani claiming that “BJP has gradually lost the support of social coalitions it once counted on for electoral gains in Bihar”. However, countering Mr. Singh, a senior State BJP leader said, “I hope he has got the message in the recently concluded bypolls in Gopalganj and Mokama. The BJP retained its Gopalganj seat while its vote count increased phenomenally in Mokama, reducing the RJD candidate’s victory margins sharply”.

Meanwhile, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) candidate Mohammed Ghulam Murtaza and Mukesh Sahani led-Vikashil Insaan Party (VIP) candidate Neelabh Kumar have made the byelection a tough battle for both BJP and JD(U) candidates. Mr. Kumar, interestingly, comes from the upper caste Bhumihar community. AIMIM was recently accused of indirectly helping the BJP candidate win in Gopalganj bypoll where the number of votes polled by AIMIM candidate was more than the victory margin of the BJP nominee.

“The BJP’s insecurity in Kurhani bypoll is too evident from the fact that it has put up its B-team AIMIM to queer the pitch for the M ahagathbandhan candidate. But we are winning the election as BJP has lost ground in the State after JD(U) severed ties with them,” JD(U) president Rajeev Ranjan Singh said.