Between saffron and green in the former red bastion of Begusarai

With red fading in the former Communist bastion of Begusarai, it is to be seen whether the saffron of Bharatiya Janata Party or green flag of the Rashtriya Janata Dal fly high this time.

The fight is to convert this former Leningrad or Lal-garh either into Lalu-garh or Modi-nagar. Though it is the leaders––Lalu Prasad and Narendra Modi––who matter much the importance of candidates can not be totally ruled out. In fact the Communist Party of India (CPI) is a house divided over the choice of candidate, Rajendra Prasad Singh, the state secretary of the party.

What is interesting is that neither the sitting MP of Janata Dal (United), Monazir Hasan, nor the runners up, Shatrughan Prasad Singh, who lost to the former by 40,000 in 2009, are in the fray.

In this most industrialized constituency of north Bihar industrial sickness is not becoming a big issue. Voters are being fed with the mantra that all the problems would be solved once Narendra Modi becomes the prime minister.

The rivals are harping on the slogan: the country would be saved if this man is being stopped from becoming the prime minister.

The district of Begusarai was developed as an industrial hub of north Bihar during the chief ministership of Shri Krishna Sinha (1947-61). But five decades later except for the Barauni refinery all the other plants are not in the best shape.

Though when things were all right the CPI often used to win this seat.

But the party was more powerful in Balia parliamentary seat, which was a separate Lok Sabha constituency before the delimitation of 2009. Five of the seven Assembly seats of Begusarai district used to fall in this constituency.

The CPI won from Balia in 1980, 1989, 1991 and 1996. But since 1999 the CPI started declining from both Balia and Begusarai. In 1990s the party contested election even in alliance with Lalu Yadav’s outfit.

There is no dearth of people in the constituency, who blame the CPI-backed trade unionism for the poor state of affairs in some of these industries, especially the closed fertilizer plant.

This time the CPI, the alliance partner of the Janata Dal (United), is in such a turmoil that its candidate for the last election, Shatrughan Prasad Singh, has resigned from the primary membership of the party after being denied the ticket.

Local people say that many of the CPI cadres are working to ensure the defeat of the party’s candidate, Rajendra Singh, in protest against the denial of ticket to Shatrughan. They may even drift towards the RJD, or even the BJP. Finding it in such a mess many Janata Dal (United) workers are either working for BJP or for RJD”s Tanvir Hasan, who had a long association with this party too. It is only a few years back that he joined the RJD and once even unsuccessfully contested election on JD(U) ticket.

The story is not very much dissimilar in the Bharatiya Janata Party too. Though the party soon closed its rank the fact is that till a few weeks back it was not in the best of shape here.

The big-mouthed Giriraj Singh wanted to contest from this seat, but Bhola Singh, the sitting MP of Nawada managed to get the ticket from here.

Political observers are of the view that Bhola was perhaps not too sure of his victory in Nawada as the voters were not satisfied with him. Giriraj thought that he was being made a scapegoat and he publicly accused Sushil Modi for denial of ticket from Begusarai.

However, the party chief Rajnath Singh prevailed upon him. Gradually the infighting within the BJP over Begusarai seat subsided and now the party is fully geared up to face the election on April 30.

RJD’s Tanvir Hasan is, as elsewhere, banking on the support of Muslims (13 per cent; 226,336 out of total 1,741,045) and Yadavs, but what his rival, especially in the BJP fears most is the fact that Tanvir is a down to earth and popular politician.

He has an untainted image and if he succeeds in attracting votes other than that of Muslims and Yadavs the BJP candidate may be in some sort of trouble. If the BJP succeeds in preventing this than it has a better chance.