In Bihar's Purnea, Rift In INDI Alliance Could Help NDA

On 4 March 2024, Pappu Yadav filed his nomination from Purnea constituency of Bihar, marking a remarkable shift in dispute between him and Tejashwi Yadav. 

Though he will contest the election as an independent, Yadav says that Congress party supports him. The fight for Purnea has now become a tripartite struggle between Pappu Yadav, RJD’s Bima Bharti and Santosh Kumar Kushwaha, Janata Dal United (JDU) candidate.

Purnea lies at the heart of Seemanchal, an electorally crucial region in Bihar. About one-third of voters are Muslims, which makes it a hot property for Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Congress, both partners in the Indian National Developmental Inclusive (INDI) Alliance. 

For Pappu Yadav, Purnea is a matter of prestige and career. He has won multiple occasions from Purnea in the past. However, after ousting from RJD, Yadav has been struggling for political significance in Bihar. Purnea is his last hope as evidenced by his outreach events such as ‘Salaam Purnea’, ‘Namaskar Purnea’ through the last few months.

Pappu Yadav’s desperation can be understood from the fact that he even merged his Jan Adhikar Party (JAP) with Congress to save his own career. However, RJD seemingly "backstabbed" him by fielding its own candidate Bima Bharti, a JDU turncoat.

Bima Bharti’s nomination did not bode well with Pappu Yadav as Congress had offered him the Purnea seat. He had also taken blessings from Lalu Yadav before joining Congress, seen as a no-objection certificate to contest from Purnea. The move appears to be part of the plan by RJD to not let Pappu Yadav resurrect himself.

Initially, Pappu Yadav remained silent and kept asking for seats from Lalu Yadav, going to the extent of rejoining RJD. However, Tejashwi Yadav jumped into the equation by joining Bima Bharti during her nomination.

He also did a rally to support her candidature. In his statement to media, Tejashwi Yadav said that those who are not with RJD are with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a statement seemingly aimed at Pappu Yadav.

Soon, Pappu Yadav also declared war openly, claiming that Tejashwi Yadav and RJD intentionally wanted to hurt him. He also asked about the fear RJD holds for him and Congress party.

“Tejashwi Yadav has snatched my mother seat [Purnea], he snatched the seat [Begusarai] of [youth leader] Kanhaiya Kumar, he snatched the seat [Aurangabad] of [Congress leader] Nikhil Kumar,” Pappu Yadav said.

Amidst all this drama in opposition, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has silently kicked off its campaign in Purnea. From NDA, JDU is taking charge in the constituency. It has fielded incumbent Member of Parliament (MP) Santosh Kumar Kushwaha from the seat. Kushwaha showed his grip on the constituency by winning it against the Narendra Modi wave of 2014.

During Kushwaha’s high-profile nomination, Ashok Choudhary, rural affairs minister of Bihar government was present. JDU state president Umesh Kushwaha, minister Vijay Chaudhary, minister Lacey Singh and former deputy chief minister Tarkishore Prasad were also present with him.

Amidst media attention on division in INDI Alliance, Kushwaha is doing his sabhas and attending to voters in his constituency.

He will be the ultimate beneficiary of this tripartite struggle. Asadudin Owaisi’s candidate from Purnea will also inadvertently aid his chances by taking a slice of Muslim vote bank away from both Pappu Yadav and RJD’s Bima Bharti.