In prestige battle for Gaya, ex- CM braves a blitz by CM and PM

As part of the NDA seat deal, Gaya has gone to the JD-U, which has fielded Vijay Kumar Manjhi from this reserved constituency of Magadh region comprising four Lok Sabha seats.

Of the four seats, NDA allies BJP and LJP are fighting one each while JD-U is in the fray from Gaya and Jehanabad.

Still, both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan chose Gaya to hold their joint rally on April 2.

Sources say the rally was at the insistence of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, for whom defeating his former protege and former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi has become a matter of prestige.

After Kumar resigned as the chief minister following his party JD-U’s dismal performance in the 2015 assembly elections, he picked Manjhi as his successor. However, within a few months, the relations soured between them. Manjhi was shown the door by the JD-U and Nitish Kumar was back as the CM. Since then, the two have been bitter rivals. Manjhi now heads HAM(S), an outfit he formed after he was ousted as the CM.

Nitish Kumar’s focus on Gaya can be measured from the fact that he has been frequenting the constituency for more than a week, addressing rallies almost every day in one pocket or another.

The situation is similar in adjoining Jehanabad seat, where sitting MP Arun Kumar, formerly with the RLSP, is putting up a stiff fight against JD-U nominee Chandeshshwar Prasad Chandrawanshi and RJD’s Surendra Yadav.

In Gaya, Jitan Ram Manjhi is largely banking upon work he did during his stint as the chief minister, besides the Manjhi, minority and Yadav votes that he expects as the Grand Alliance nominee.

Manjhi is also eyeing the traditional BJP votes of upper caste, relying on his personal rapport among the upper caste voters of the district. In the past, Manjhi has demanded quota in jobs for the economically backward upper caste.

Manjhi had contested this seat on JD-U ticket in 2014, but finished third after BJP’s Hari Manjhi and RJD’s Ramjee Manjhi.