Buxar is historically known as the location of the battle of Chausa between Mughal emperor Humayun and the Afghan warlord Sher Shah Suri. In the Lok Sabha election, however, the battle of Buxar in western Bihar is being branded as ‘insider vs outsider’, with the BJP’s Mithilesh Tiwari being given the ‘outsider tag’ by the Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Sudhakar Singh and his supporters.
Mr. Singh is the son of the RJD’s State president Jagdanand Singh and the MLA from the Ramgarh Assembly seat, which falls within the bounds of the Buxar parliamentary constituency. Mr. Tiwari, who hails from Dumaria village in Gopalganj district, around 150 km from Buxar, hopes that he can follow the precedent set by the sitting BJP MP Ashwini Choubey, who won the Buxar seat despite hailing from Bhagalpur.
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Voters are circumspect on the issue. “Both candidates are outsiders; if Mithlesh Tiwari is from Gopalganj then Sudhakar Singh is from Kaimur district. The only plus point with Sudhakar is that he represents Ramgarh assembly segment which falls under Buxar parliamentary constituency,” said Ram Pukar Singh, a resident of Lohandi village in the Itarhi block.
Farmer focus
Mr. Singh was an Agriculture Minister in Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s previous Cabinet, but had to quit after he spoke out against Mr. Kumar. At a recent public meeting in Hakimpur village, which is dominated by Rajputs, he recalled that, as State Agriculture Minister, he had wanted to implement the mandi system in Bihar to benefit the farming community, but that the CM had never supported the proposal. He also promised farmers a legally guaranteed Minimum Support Price (MSP) for their produce, and vowed to take on the middlemen who snatch the farmer’s hard-earned profits while selling their crops.
Apart from the farmer focus, Mr. Singh’s speeches invariably feature a poke at Mr. Tiwari’s supposed ‘outsider’ status. The BJP candidate, however, is intent on leveraging the fact that Buxar borders Varanasi in eastern Uttar Pradesh, the constituency represented by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In his campaign events, Mr. Tiwari makes sure to mention this, seeking votes in Mr. Modi’s name and vowing to develop Buxar as a mini Kashi.
Independent threats
Both candidates face a similar threat in the form of Independent candidates. Mr. Tiwari must take on Anand Mishra, a former Superintendent of Police (SP) in Assam’s Lakhimpur district, who hails from Buxar and has a good hold among Brahmin voters.
The Assam Cadre IPS officer has taken voluntary retirement to contest the election. Early in the poll process, his name was doing the rounds as a potential BJP candidate, but when it was Mr. Tiwari who was ultimately named as the party’s official candidate from Buxar. Mr. Mishra then lashed out at the BJP, claiming that he had been cheated after being promised a ticket.
Similarly, the RJD candidate Mr. Singh faces a challenge from Independent Dadan Singh Yadav alias Dadan Pahalwan, a former MLA and Minister who is likely to cause a dent in the Yadav vote bank. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate Anil could also draw a significant chunk of Buxar’s Dalit votes; in the last general election, the BSP candidate stood third.
The M-word
Since 1996, Buxar has been a stronghold of the BJP, whose candidates have won the seat in every election since then, expect in 2009, when Mr. Singh’s father snagged the seat with a margin of just 2,000 votes. The late Lalmuni Choubey won the seat as a BJP candidates four times; Mr. Ashwini Choubey has won fhe seat in the last two elections, but was dropped in 2024. However, all six Assembly seats within Buxar are currently held by MLAs belonging to the Opposition INDIA bloc.
“The BJP does not have any issue and the only thing they are doing is dividing the society on the lines of religion. The PM is only talking about the letter ‘M’ and nothing else and his candidate is doing the same thing in Buxar. The PM is talking about Mutton, Mujra, Muslims and Mandir but not talking about another word that starts with M, that is, Mehangai [price rise]. I am not bothered about Independent candidates because they play the role of vote-katwa (vote cropper),” Mr. Singh told The Hindu.
Looking at the caste equation, Brahmins are the dominant community in the constituency, with a population of about four lakh, followed by 3.5 lakh Yadavs and nearly three lakh Rajputs. There are 2.5 lakh Bhumihars and 1.5 lakh Muslims. There are also significant populations of Kurmis, Kushwahas, Vaishyas, and Dalits.
Published - May 31, 2024 09:24 pm IST
