Bihar bypoll: Independent Shankar Singh wins Rupauli assembly seat

Bima Bharti, a former Bihar minister who had won the seat for JD(U) three times on the trot, failed to retain it on an RJD ticket, finishing third, and with a vote share touching 18 per cent, narrowly escaping forfeiture of security deposit.

JD(U) candidate Kaladhar Prasad Mandal, who had joined the party headed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar recently, put up a spirited fight, leading in the first six rounds, only to concede, later on, to Singh, who came back from behind.

RJD spokesman Shakti Yadav said, “It is a stunning result. Two OBC candidates have lost. Those working on the agenda of the BJP have succeeded. The backward classes must introspect.” Senior BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Kumar Sinha said “the Independent candidate, after all, has his roots in the NDA. The by-poll outcome is proof that people are fed up with the RJD and the loudmouth local MP who was supporting that party”.

Shankar Singh, who had last month quit Union minister Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) to contest the bypoll in which the JD(U) had the backing of the entire NDA, polled 68,070 votes, 8,246 more than Mandal’s tally.

A Robinhood-like figure who came into the limelight in the 1990s because of his association with North Bihar Liberation Army, an upper-caste militia, Singh’s victory has come for him as breaking a jinx of sorts.

The Rajput strongman, who seems to have benefitted from the split in OBC votes between JD(U) and RJD, had tasted victory in the 2005 assembly polls when he contested as a candidate of LJP, headed by Paswan’s late father Ram Vilas Paswan.

However, Singh did not get the chance to enter the assembly, which was dissolved by the then Governor Buta Singh and in the ensuing elections held a few months later, he lost by a slender margin to Bharti, who was making her debut on an RJD ticket.

With the JD(U) forming the government in the state, Bharti later changed her affiliation in search of greener pastures, even as Singh kept trying his luck without success though, in the meantime, his wife Pratima got elected to Zila Parishad.

On July 10, the date of polling, the couple had staged a dharna accusing the administration of trying to influence voting at a polling station where a clash between locals and the police had left two personnel injured.

Defeat in the by-poll comes as a huge setback to Bharti, who had last month lost her deposit in the Lok Sabha poll to Purnea seat, where her candidature had caused Pappu Yadav to give up hopes of a ticket from Congress, an RJD ally, and win the constituency on his own steam.

Yadav had, a few days ahead of the bypoll on July 10, announced “full support” to Bharti, citing his commitment to the “ideology” of the Congress.

Loss of the seat, despite all NDA partners throwing in their lot, also comes as a major embarrassment to the JD(U), which had shown signs of revival in the parliamentary polls, after having performed dismally in the 2020 assembly elections. PTI PKD NAC BDC