Araria electoral battle: BJP's Pradeep Kumar Singh tries to regain seat; RJD's Alam attempts to defend family reputation

Araria (Bihar) [India], May 4 : Araria Lok Sabha constituency, a key constituency among Bihar's 40 parliamentary constituencies, is all set to witness a neck-to-neck electoral battle between NDA alliance-backed BJP candidate and sitting MP Pradeep Kumar Singh and the INDIA bloc candidate from Rashtriya Janata Dal, Shahnawaz Alam.
In the past two decades, the constituency has had a history of switching candidates between both BJP and RJD. In the 1999 elections, Sukhdev Paswan won on an RJD ticket. In the 2004 elections, Paswan switched to the BJP and regained this seat. In the 2009 elections, the BJP fielded Pradeep Kumar Singh and was successful in winning this seat.
In the 2014 general elections, the RJD won the Araria seat when Mohammad Taslimuddin defeated BJP's Pradeep Kumar Singh. Taslimuddin received 41pc of the votes.
In the last 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Pradeep Kumar Singh once again regained the seat and BJP emerged victorious by receiving 52.87pc of the votes polled. He won against Sarfaraz Alam of RJD who got 41.14pc of the votes polled.
Pradeep Kumar Singh secured a total of 618434 votes, while his closest competitor, Sarfaraz Alam of the RJD, garnered 481,193 votes. Sarfaraz Alam faced defeat with a margin of 137,241 votes.
The NOTA voters 20, 618 (2 per cent) on the seat.
From Independence till the mid-'80s, the seat used to be a stronghold of Congress. However, after that, the seat Janata Dal's Sukdeo Paswan won the seat thrice in 1989, 1991 and 1996.
In the 1967 and 1971 elections, Tulumohan Singh from the Congress party won from here. In 1977, Mahendra Narayan Sardar of the Indian Lok Dal won. Subsequently, in the 1980 and 1984 elections, Dumar Lal Baitha of the Congress party won from this seat. In the following three elections of 1989, 1991 and 1996, Sukhdev Paswan of the Janata Dal won from this seat. In 1998, Ramji Das Rishidev of the BJP won.
The Araria Lok Sabha constituency includes six Vidhan Sabha constituencies: Narpatganj, Raniganj (Reserved), Forbesganj, Araria, Jokihat and Sikti. Araria is a part of the Seemanchal region and this area has a large chunk of Muslim voters.
RJD's Shahnawaz Alam is son of Taslimuddin, a popular RJD leader from the Seemanchal region comprising Purnia, Kishanganj, Katihar and Araria districts, close to Nepal and West Bengal, who won this seat in 2014.
If Pradeep from the BJP has been the winner of this seat twice and is in the fray a third time to win the seat, Shahnawaz from the RJD is also trying to get the Araria seat a third time banking on the reputation of the Taslimuddin family.
Both the parties are leaving no stone unturned to clinch the seat and consequently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed an election rally at Forbesganj on April 26 in favour of the sitting BJP MP Pradeep Kumar Singh. RJD's Tejashwi Yadav accompanied RJD candidate Shahnawaz Alam when he filed his nomination on April 18.
Araria is one of the most backward districts in terms of socio-economic and infrastructure indicators. As the river Kosi passes through the district flood remains one of the major issues. Many incomplete bridges and culverts have posed a major problem for the last 10 years.
The distance from the Araria-Purnia four-lane NH-57 to Kochgama of Kusiargaon Panchayat of Araria block is only 500 meters. Despite the construction of a bridge on Kosi Dhar in Kusiar village, due to the lack of an approach road, people have to travel a distance of 15 kilometres.
Polling in Bihar, which sends 40 members to the Lok Sabha, is being held across all seven phases--April 19, April 26, May 7, May 13, May 20, May 25, and June 1.
Araria is set to poll in the third phase on May 7. The counting of votes for all phases is scheduled for June 4. In the 2019 elections, the BJP-led NDA nearly mopped up the poll sweepstakes in the state, winning 39 of the 40 seats.