Don’t mess with us: Smaller parties send out a message in Bihar bypolls

By Ajay Kumar

Patna, Nov 13 (SocialNews.XYZ) In the last few years, bigger parties have been seen gobbling up the smaller parties. A similar trend was witnessed in Bihar when the BJP broke the Vikassheel Insan Party by merging three of its MLAs on March 23.

The trend of the big fish eating the smaller one continued when the RJD broke 4 out of the 5 MLAs of the AIMIM who were inducted into the party on June 30 this year.

Now, it's the turn of the smaller fish to take revenge on the bigger fish. The smaller parties are taking revenge by making themselves the "Vote Katwa" party, eating into the votes of the bigger parties like the BJP and the RJD.

One such example could be seen during the Gopalganj by-poll when AIMIM candidate Abdul Salam turned "Vote Katwa" for the RJD candidate Mohan Gupta and bagged 12000 odd votes. Due to the presence of the AIMIM candidate, the RJD lost the election to BJP candidate Kusum Devi by a small margin of 1796 votes.

Now the same thing may be replicated in the Kurhani by-poll scheduled on December 5. The Kurhani seat became vacant after RJD MLA Anil Sahani was convicted in a LTA scam.

Akhtarul Imam, the lone AIMIM MLA in Bihar, said: "AIMIM is looking for the appropriate candidate to challenge RJD and BJP candidates. We have a good vote bank in Seemanchal area and we are looking for the expansion of the party from other areas of the state."

Following the statement of Imam, it is quite clear that AIMIM will intrude into the traditional Muslim vote banks of the RJD or the JD-U.

Imam also said that Muslim voters are not the property of political parties like the RJD.

The RJD on the other hand has already declared that AIMIM is the B team of the BJP. Mritunjay Tiwari, the RJD spokesperson said: "AIMIM has only one goal, to defeat the RJD. It is a B team of the BJP, everyone knows. It was proven during the 2020 assembly election and it is proven in Gopalganj as well."

Besides the AIMIM, Vikassheel Insan party (VIP) chief Mukesh Sahani also announced his party's candidate in a bid to enhance his bargaining power.

Mukesh Sahani presents himself as the son of Mallah (Fishermen community) voters who are in sizable numbers in the Kurhani assembly constituency. Since, he has had a sour relationship with the BJP after the latter broke his party in March this year and included three of his party's MLAs in it, he is trying to take revenge.

The BJP knows that Mukesh Sahani has a great hold in the Mallah community which is classed as lower caste and it is looking at him to launch a good candidate to cut the votes of the Mallah community. If the VIP would not put up a candidate in Kurhani, the Mallah community votes will automatically shift towards the grand alliance. The BJP in Bihar is known as a party of upper caste voters. Hence lower castes like the Mallah community will not vote for a BJP candidate unless and until the candidate was from their caste.

"Keeping this in view, Mukesh Sahani said: "We knew our strength. I also want to tell the BJP that it may use its money power to purchase the MLAs but there is no Taksal (A coin manufacturing unit) manufactured in the country which can buy the son of Mallah."

The statement of Mukesh Sahani came after BJP state president Sanjay Jaiswal in a Facebook post said that Mukesh Sahani is collecting dead cartridges and he does not have the firing power.

"Coming into politics to do social work is like collecting dead cartridges, I will commit the mistake again and again for the people of our community. Why is the BJP scared of a VIP candidate in Kurhani. You have cheated the fishermen and boat seller community people over the years and they will take revenge for it," Sahani said.

Sahani is having a good opportunity to give a ticket to a candidate belonging to the upper caste and damage the BJP. The RJD and the JD-U know this game. Hence, it is a win-win situation for people like Mukesh Sahani to show his might before the RJD and the JD-U and prove his relevance in Bihar's politics.

The situation has arisen after the Gopalganj by-poll gave an important weapon to the smaller parties to bargain with the bigger parties or turn "Vote Katwa" for them. Such a trend will continue in the Lok Sabha polls 2024 and the Vidhan Sabha polls in 2025 in Bihar.

Kurhani assembly constituency is in Muzaffarpur and its border touches Vaishali district.

Besides, the Muslim and Mallah communities, it has a good presence of Bhumihars, Koiris, Yadavs and Banias.

Since RJD MLA Anil Sahani was disqualified after the LTA scam, it is most likely that the seat will go to JD-U. In case the RJD claims the Kurhani seat, the BJP will raise the corruption issue against its candidate. Hence, it will be ideal for the JD-U to put up a suitable candidate and get support from the RJD as well as Mukesh Sahani.

Source: IANS