It's Yadav versus Yadav in Bihar

In their bid to win over the numerically strong backward community Yadavs, the battle of Bihar is fast turning into a battle of Yadavs.

The NDA and Nitish-led grand alliance have together fielded 89 Yadav candidates in the 243 constituencies, a whopping 35 per cent, although the dominant backward class is around 14 per cent in the state.

As a consequence, there will be more than a dozen odd seats where the Yadavs from both camps will be in a direct contest. Like for example in Lalu’s Saran district, Jitendra Rai of the RJD has locked horns with Lal Babu Rai of the BJP in Marhaura constituency.

In Narpatganj, Anil Kumar Yadav will be in straight fight with Janardan Yadav of the BJP. Lalu’s son Tejaswi Yadav too will have to face stiff competition from the BJP’s Satish Yadav in Raghopur. Similar is the case with his elder brother Tej Pratap, another debutant from Lalu’s family, who will face challenge from HAM’s Rabindra Rai, the sitting MLA from Mahua.

The NDA has fielded 25 Yadavs as compared to grand alliance’s 64 candidates from the same caste. Out of the 214 candidates declared so far, the NDA has given prominence to upper castes by allocating 85 seats.

But still there will be seats like Govindpur where a fierce battle between Yadav vs Yadav will be witnessed as the Congress’s Poornima Yadav is in direct contest with the BJP’s Phool Devi Yadav. Bihar’s ruling party JD (U)’s Aniruddh Yadav has locked horns with Ram Kumar Rai of the BJP in Nirmali.

Yadavs may have got a lion’s share, but Muslims have been given shabby treatment by both the camps. While the NDA gave nine seats to the community, the grand alliance fielded 33 candidates out of which Congress gave 10 tickets minorities from its quota of 41 seats.