by Alok Mohit
PATNA: The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), a partner in Bihar’s ruling ‘Mahagatbandhan’, and the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday retained their respective sitting assembly seats of Mokama and Gopalganj.
Polling for the two seats were held on November 3. Byelections were necessitated in Goplaganj following the death of BJP MLA Subhash Singh in August. The Mokama assembly seat fell vacant post disqualification of Anant Kumar Singh of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). Singh, the-then MLA from Mokama, was disqualified in July after his conviction in an Arms Act case. Both seats have been clinched by wives of the previous winners.
RJD candidate Neelam Devi won the Mokama seat by a margin of 16,741 votes over her BJP rival Sonam Devi. While Neelam Devi polled 73,893 votes, Sonam Devi could garner only 57,141 votes.
In Gopalganj, the home district of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, BJP candidate Kusum Devi won by a slender margin of 1,794 votes. She received 70,053 votes and defeated RJD’s Mohan Prasad Gupta, who got 68,259 votes.
The byelections were seen as the first test of strength for the Nitish Kumar-led ‘Mahagathbandhan’ government, formed in August after the Janata Dal (United) parted ways with the BJP and formed a coalition with the RJD, Congress and some other parties.
“There was no contest in Mokama. My victory was certain. People of of the constituency were with me and in a democracy the people are supreme,” Neelam Kumari said she was declared winner. Mokama has been a stronghold of Anant Kumar Singh since 2005. He won the seat twice on JD(U) ticket and in 2020he was returned to the Assembly as an RJD candidate.
“The entire district is with me. I was blessed by everyone. My victory is victory for everyone. I will carry forward the development work that did not get completed.,” said Kusum Devi after she won the election.
The RJD candidate, however, told reporters that the voters were misled on the polling day as the BJP had moved the EC seeking cancellation of his nomination alleging that Gupta had concealed information about a pending case in Jharkhand in his affidavit. “A rumour was spread that my nomination has been cancelled which adversely affected my prospects. I have sought an inquiry into it by the administration,” Gupta said.
Political analysts said Gupta’s prospects were also affected by the presence of Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM and Mayawati’s BSP in the fray. They together polled votes ten times the victory margin in Gopalganj. AIMM’s Abdul Salam got 12,212 votes, BSP candidate Indira Yadav, who is wife of RJD chief’s brother-in-law Sadhu Yadav, received 8,853 votes.
Hailing the Gopalganj result, BJP’s Bihar president Sanjay Jaiswal said it was a “popular rejection” of the ruling coalition.
“In Mokama, the victory margin of RJD has come down substantially,” senior BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain said.
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