Battle of Balia: Bullets vs ballots is on the cards
It?s not going to be easy this time for criminal-turned-politician Surajbhan Singh, who is contesting on an LJP ticket.
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| Surajbhan Singh (LJP) |
The people in the Balia Lok Sabha constituency apprehend that Balia may go the Mokama way if criminal-turned-politician Suraj Singh alias Surajbhan Singh got elected. But then, the battle of bullets is different from the battle of ballots and it’s not going to be easy for the strongman contesting on a Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) ticket.
Though 11 persons are in fray, it’s a triangular contest here. Those in contention are Ramjivan Singh of the Janata Dal (United), Shatrughan Singh of the CPI and last but not the least, Surajbhan of the LJP, a partner of the secular alliance.
STANDING TALL: Leading the race in the run-up to the polls is Ramjivan. He not only won the elections from here in 1977 (on Bharatiya Lok Dal ticket) and then in 1999 on JD (U) ticket, but also has a clean image and is respected by all and sundry. He is considered a pious soul, who may not be of much help to anyone, but at the same time, cannot harm anybody either. Ramjivan knows his public reputation. So, when he goes on a door-to-door campaign, he solicits votes from the people who like him as a person and not for any other reasons.
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| Shatrughan Singh (CPI) |
CPI nominee Shatrughan Singh had once won from here in 1996. The constituency, not very long back, was considered a Left bastion, Barauni, Alouli and Bakhri being CPI strongholds. While the party has been able to retain its base in the Barauni and Alouli assembly segments with Rajinder Singh and Pashupati Kumar Paras its legislators respectively, Ramanand Ram of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) managed to wrest the Bakhri seat from the Left in the last assembly elections.
The RJD now commands a sizeable four —Balia (Shrinarayan Yadav), Bakhri (Ramanand Ram), Bachhwada (Uttam Yadav) and Cheria Bariyarpur (Ashok Kumar Mahto)—out of the six assembly seats in this parliamentary constituency. Yet, the party frittered away the advantage by surrendering the seat to the LJP in a pre-poll alliance. And this is what has hurt the local leaders the most.