Luv Sinha has said he is ready for a tough fight in BJP.
Patna, Bihar:
An element of curiosity was introduced in the segment of the Bankipur assembly where the attempt of a young heavily placed BJP MP for a hattrick was challenged by an even younger Congress candidate with formidable pedigree.
The candidacy of Luv Sinha, 37, whose father Shatrughan Sinha lost Patna Sahib in Lok Sabha polls last year as he was fighting over a congressional ticket, surprised residents of the capital of Bihar, much of which is covered. under the constituency named after a locality in the city.
The father won Lok Sabha’s seat in 2009 and 2014, when he contested over a BJP ticket, but he burned his bridges with the party after repeated jibes, as he repeatedly called Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah from “one man show and army of two men”.
Last year, the “Bihari Babu” which boasted of having recorded the state’s biggest margin of victory in 2014 as all the credit went to the “Modi wave”, lost by even greater numbers of votes (2.84,657) to former cabinet colleague Ravi Shankar Prasad who was running for the first time in an election.
Not much is known to date about the political skills of his children, although it is common knowledge that unlike his twin brother Kush, Luv showed interest in acting, but failed to make it big like “Shotgun” or, to some extent, its younger sister. Sonakshi.
As well as being born to a famous actor whose ability to draw crowds to his hometown remains intact, Luv Sinha also has a caste factor on his side in Bankipur where the winner and runner-up has been, invariably, Kayasthas. .
However, defeating the titular Nitin Nabin remains a tall order as the city, in reaction to the Mandal wave and the lawlessness that reigned during the reign of Lalu Prasad and his wife Rabri Devi, has turned into a stronghold of the BJP.
This explains why the 40-year-old MP, who made his debut from the now abolished seat of Patna West in 2006 in a by-election necessitated by the death of his father Nabin Kishore Sinha, has always won by incredible margins.
Even in 2015, when Congress nominated another Kayastha candidate, Kumar Ashish, who had the backing of Lalu Prasad’s RJD as well as Nitish Kumars JD (U), Bankipur remained a walk for Nitin Nabin even as the BJP had struggling to defend themselves in much of the state, not having won even a quarter of the seats in this assembly of 243 people.
Nitish Kumar is back in the NDA this time the BJP sees as a bonus. In addition, Nabins’ reputation has grown since. He led the state unit of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha until recently and has now been appointed as the parties in charge of Sikkim.
The opposition Grand Alliance, of which Congress is the second partner after RJD, however hopes to take advantage of the anti-titular factor which has become palpable, with the chief minister having been in power for about a decade and a half.
Congress also hopes to make inroads among disgruntled BJP cadres who don’t have much room in the state capital to vent their frustrations, even LJP rebel leader Chirag Paswan avoiding running candidates against candidates. of the saffron party in any of the countries. four assembly segments that cover the entire city.
This was evident when Sushma Sahu, a former BJP president Mahila Morcha who recently quit the party and sought to run as an independent candidate, showed up at public meetings where she solicited Luv Sinha, calling her “chhota bhai “brother).
Sahu alleged that his candidacy files were rejected at the request of the ruling coalition and accused the BJP of “insulting the Vaishya community” by ignoring and humiliating them.
We will know how much ice these cuts with voters will be on November 3, when Bankipur, which has a strong electorate of 3.91 lakh, goes to the polls in the second phase of the elections. In total, 22 candidates are in the fray here and, in addition to the main contenders, there is talk of Pushpam Priya Chaudhary, who calls himself “Chief Ministerial
candidate “of her new Plurals Party outfit.
However, the politically conscious residents of the city gaze in bemusement at the self-proclaimed political reformer, who claims to be an alumnus of the London School of Economics and happens to be the daughter of a JD (U) leader in northern Bihar.
NDA leaders describe Luv Sinha as a “candidate for the parachute”. But, his father, Shatrughan Sinha, says he is “Bihar putra” (son of Bihar) and has been working for the people since he (Sinha himself) contested the elections of Lok Sabha of native Patna for the first time. times in 2009.
Confident of the victory of the BJP on the siege, some leaders of the Saffron party boast that “even if the American President Donald Trump comes to challenge the BJP of Patna, he will be defeated”.
Sri Krishna Nagar’s Priti Sinha says that although little development work has been done in the area, we would like to have a BJP-JD (U) government for crime control. Sapalta Singh, from Khajpura locality, says that “we are firmly with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. To make the country strong, we must have it in power everywhere.”
