Eight prominent debutants who entered the Lok Sabha poll fray from Bihar could not reach the finishing line.

Among them, CPI candidate from Begusarai, Kanhaiya Kumar, who secured the second highest votes, hogged the headlines the most. Kanhaiya, a former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union leader, was pitted against Bharatiya Janata Party’s Giriraj Singh, who had established a massive lead as per latest counting trends on Thursday evening.

Kanhaiya’s election campaign was helped by Bollywood personalities, JNUSU office-bearers and faculty, and Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mewani. Like Giriraj, Kanhaiya is also a Bhumihar.

The other prominent debutant was Aakash Kumar Singh, Rashtriya Lok Samata Party’s candidate from East Champaran constituency, who is pitted against union agriculture minister and BJP veteran Radha Mohan Singh.

Aakash is son of Congress Rajya Sabha MP Akhilesh Kumar Singh, who is a former union minister.

Yet another prominent debutant was Shashwat Kedar, the Congress candidate from Valmikinagar. Kedar, who is grandson of former Bihar chief minister Kedar Pandey and son of former MP Manoj Pandey, was defeated by JD (U) candidate Baidyanath Prasad Mahto.

Similar was the fate of Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) chief Mukesh Sahani, who lost from Khagaria. His party, who was part of Grand Alliance, had also fielded candidates from Madhubani and Muzaffarpur, but they too lost.

The other unlucky RJD candidate from Gopalganj was Surendra Ram, who was defeated by Alok Kumar Suman of JD (U).

First Published: May 24, 2019 16:11 IST