Law Kumar Mishra
Patna, November 6
The Mahagathbandhan supported RJD candidate, Mohan Prasad Gupta was defeated in Gopalganj assembly constituency that also happens to be the stronghold and home turf of Party President Lalu Prasad.
The results of the mid-term polls held in the state were announced on Sunday.
RJD however succeeded in Mokama in Patna district, where the contest was between the wives of two strongmen (bahubalis), Ms Neelam Devi of RJD and Sonam Devi of BJP, who lost the election. When results were announced at the Aryabhat University counting centre here, Neelam’s husband Anant Singh was informed about the victory of his wife at Beur Central jail, four km west of the university.
By-election was necessitated as Anant was sentenced to three years jail term in a criminal case, declared disqualified and barred from contesting any election. Anant had represented Mokama since 1995 as an independent,JDU and RJD candidate for six consecutive terms.
Neelam defeated Sonam, wife of another strongman of the area, Lallan Singh by a margin of 16741 votes. Both the candidates are from upper Bhumihar caste. She was supported by the JDU and the Congress too and national president of JDU, Rajiv Ranjan Singh,who had defeated Anant in the last Lok Sabha elections had campaigned for Neelam.
in Gopalganj, the BJP retained the seat as its candidate Kusum Devi, widow of former industries minister Subhash Singh was declared elected by 1794 votes. She defeated the RJD candidate Mohan Prasad Gupta, who runs several liquor factories in Goa and who was supported by the entire team of ministers led by the Deputy Chief Minister, Tejaswhi Prasad Yadav, whose ancestral house is at Phulwaria in Gopalganj.
After 18 rounds of counting, Gupta started leading in the next two rounds narrowly, but after the 22nd round, he trailed behind BJP nominee that continued till the last vote was counted. His demand for recounting of votes was turned down by the returning officer.
Gopalganj by-election was caused following the death of the sitting BJP MLA, Subhash Singh. BJP fielded his widow, Kusum Devi, who retained the seat.
RJD attributed the defeat of its candidate by blaming the AIMIM which had fielded Abdul Salam as its candidate. He polled over 12,000 votes. Bahujan Samaj Party candidate, Mrs Indira Yadav, wife of Sadhu Yadav, younger brother of Former Chief Minister Rabri Devi also contributed to the defeat of RJD candidate as she made a dent into Yadav vote bank of RJD.
Sushil Kumar Modi, former Deputy Chief Minister and senior BJP leader claimed that both Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav have lost their influence on the voters .In Mokama, Chhote Sarkar (as Anant Singh is called) won and not the government of Nitish and Tejaswhi.
He said even in Gopalganj, considered to be the strong base of RJD with 65,000 Muslim votes, RJD candidate lost. “Now, both Lalu and Nitish have become irrelevant in Bihar politics”, the senior BJP leader commented.
