Bihar Polls: Will PK Contest From Kargahar Or Raghopur?

Sasaram: The entry of Jan Suraaj Party led by poll strategist Prashant Kishor in the race for the forthcoming assembly polls has added a new dimension to the multipolar turf of Bihar politics.

Prashant Kishor, or PK as he is popularly known has been continuously carrying out padayatras and outreach programmes for the last three years. He has already announced that his party will not enter into an alliance with anyone and will contest all the 243 assembly seats.

On the issue of his choice of constituency for contesting the polls, he said, “If I have to contest the elections, there are two options. Either I will contest from my birthplace of Kargahar or from any other seat from my karmabhoomi of ​​Bihar. The decision has to be taken by the party. If the party decides, I will either contest from my birthplace or else I have expressed my wish to contest from Raghopur.”

The people of Kargahar are expecting him to contest from the seat and appreciate his taking up the issues of the common man.

Then there are those like Hiralal Singh who said, “Rohtas is his birthplace. The people here also want Prashant Kishore to start his political career from here.”

PK has also made inroads among the women voters by taking up issues concerning them during his public outreach programmes. Voters like Ratna Sinha pointed out that she liked his vision for development while Rinki Singh Kushwaha vouches for his honesty and wants him to win.

"We women are with Prashant Kishor. In his meetings, he constantly talks about migration. Our husbands have to go to the other states to work. It is important for him to win. All of us women are with him. In this election we women will come out in his support in every possible way,” she said.

The Jan Suraj Party leaders and workers are excited over the possibility of Prashant Kishor contesting the elections from Kargahar. The party 's General Secretary for Rohtas, Atendra Kumar said that the opposition candidates would lose their deposits if PK contests. “This will benefit not only Kargahar but also Rohtas and the surrounding districts, “he claimed.

"His victory is certain wherever he contests from. However, the party organization will decide from which seat he contests,” he added.

Kargahar is a seat where the voters are politically very aware. It is also the seat in Rotas district with maximum political polarization.

The votes of the backward class are known to be strongly consolidated here and the voters of Kurmi caste can play the decisive role in the poll outcome. But at the same time, it also has a substantial Brahmin population with Yadav, Kushwaha, Ravidas and Vaishya communities also having spheres of influence.

In Kargahar assembly constituency, the Kurmi population is 40,000, Koiri (Kushwaha) 20,000, Brahmin 32,000, Vaishya 20,000, Yadav 30,000, Rajput 15,000, Paswan 14,000, Nonia 12,000 and the Bhumihar population is 8000. The number of Muslim voters is also decent.

This constituency came into existence in 2008 and Janata Dal United (JDU) won it on two successive occasions.

In 2010, JDU 's Ramdhani Singh won by polling 54190 votes over Lok Janshakti Party’s Shiv Shankar Singh who got 40993 votes. In 2015, JDU 's Vashishth Singh won this seat.

However, this seat was wrested by the Congress candidate Santosh Kumar Mishra who defeated JDU 's Vashisht Singh in a close contest.

The Congress is once again expected to field Santosh Kumar Mishra on this seat for the forthcoming polls while the NDA’s choice of candidate is still not clear.

Political analyst Surendra Tiwari believes that after the arrival of PK, this seat is expected to be one of the hot seats in the state. Since it is his birthplace, his emotional attachment with the people here is natural.

"Common people here are connecting with Prashant Kishor for his vision for the place as he spent his childhood in this district. He will have an instant support if he contests from here and the sizable Brahmin population will be to his advantage,” he said.

PK’s ancestral home is in Konar village of Rohtas district which is located on Buxar road at a distance of 5 km from Sasaram district headquarters. Konar village falls in Kargahar assembly constituency. His father Dr. Shrikant Pandey lived in Buxar where he had his early education.

PK said in a recent interview that after the death of his parents he has not visited his village home for almost 10 years but he will definitely visit it after the forthcoming assembly elections in the state.

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