Bihar: Ram Vilas Paswan's nephew locked in direct contest with Congress nominee in Samastipur byelection

PATNA: Though altogether eight candidates are trying their luck in byelection from Bihar’s Samastipur Lok Sabha seat, the constituency reserved for the members of scheduled caste is all set to witness a direct contest between Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan’s nephew and LJP candidate Prince Raj and the Congress nominee Ashok Kumar.
The constituency will go to the polling on October 21 while counting of votes will be held on October 24.
The constituency, having six assembly segments, is spread in two districts. While its four assembly segments—Kalyanpur, Samastipur, Warisnagar and Rosera (SC) are in Samastipur district; the rest two segments Hayaghat and Kusheshwar Sthan are in Darbhanga district.
The byelection in Samastipur (SC) constituency was necessitated following the death of sitting MP and Ram Vilas’s younger brother Ram Chandra Paswan, who represented the seat four times in the Lok Sabha.
Prior to the delimitation of Lok Sabha constituencies in 2008, Samastipur (SC) seat was known as Rosera (SC) seat. Ram Chandra won the Rosera (SC) seat twice—in 1999 as JD(U) candidate and in 2004 as the LJP candidate.
After the delimitation and renaming of the constituency as Samastipur (SC), Ram Chandra lost the seat to JD(U)’s Maheshwar Hazari in 2009 general elections. But he again won the seat in 2014 and 2019 general elections, riding on Narendra Modi wave.
Even during the previous two general election which held in 2014 and May this year, the constituency witnessed a direct fight between the then LJP nominee and Prince’s father Ram Chandra and the Congress' same candidate Ashok Kumar. But Ram Chandra, riding on Modi’s wave, improved his margin of victory in May, 2019 poll.
In 2014, Ram Chandra had won the seat by a nominal margin of 10, 128 votes but in May 2019, his victory margin swelled to 2,51,643 votes. In the last May 2019 election, Ram Chandra got 5,62,443 votes (55.19% of polled votes) against Ashok’s 3,10,800 votes (30.5%).
Trying to gain sympathy of people, Prince is recounting the development works done by his father as a Lok Sabha member and his uncle Ram Vilas as Union minister. Prince is seeking votes on the plea that he should be given at least once chance to complete the unfinished works of his father, whereas Ashok, the Congress sitting MLA from Rosera (SC) segment, is seeking peoples’ “blessings” on the argument that people should elect such a leader who could raise voice of Samastipur in the Lok Sabha.
Like previous election, Prince has the backing of the NDA allies namely BJP and JD(U), while Ashok has support from the allies of the five-party Grand Alliance and the Left outfits. Several BJP seniors including Union Minister Nityanan Rai recently campaigned in favour of Prince, while JD(U) chief and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi will be addressing a public meeting to seek votes for the LJP candidate.
“Except the name of the LJP candidate, hardly anything has changed in the constituency in the last five months since the last general election. Political scenario and political equations are the same, hence there may not be any alteration in the result,” said Shiv Pujan Singh, a school teacher.