Bihar election 2020: JD(U) makes battle for Valmiki Nagar interesting

One of the constituencies which will go into the third and final phase of assembly election in Bihar along with the remaining 77 is Valmiki Nagar. A part of the Valmiki Nagar Lok Sabha constituency, Dhirendra Pratap Singh alias Rinku Singh is the current MLA of Valmiki Nagar. He contested as an independent candidate in 2015 and now is fighting on a Janata Dal (United) ticket.

The JD(U) is fighting this election in partnership with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as a part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Nitish Kumar is the chief ministerial face of the NDA.

Apart from Dhirendra Pratap Singh, Rajesh Singh of the Congress and Mahendra Kumar Bharti of the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) are also contesting the state election from Valmiki Nagar. The LJP, led by Chirag Paswan, is fighting this election alone.

Situated in the West Champaran district, Valmiki Nagar has a total population of 494,717 which entirely belongs to the rural section. The ratio of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes is at 14.7 and 18.93 respectively.

The electorate strength of the constituency for the 2020 election is 3,31,582 comprising 1,78,156 men, 1,53,392 women and a total of 34 belonging to the third gender.

A notable feature about Valmiki Nagar is that the constituency has not been any party’s bastion till now.

In the 2015 election, independent candidate Dhirendra Pratap Singh won the constituency with a total of 66,860 votes and a vote share of 36.17 per cent .

While Congress party’s Irshad Hussain secured the second place with 35,580 votes and a vote share of 18.01 per cent. The difference between the winner and runner up stood at a massive 35,580 votes.

The constituency saw a voter turnout of nearly 63% out of a voting population of 2,95,342 voters which included 1,61,252 men and 1,34,055 women.

The trends in the 2015 election show that Dhirendra Pratap Singh might emerge victorious in 2020 and as well and further make Valmiki Nagar as his stronghold.

On Saturday, Bihar will enter its third and last phase of voting in 78 constituencies, campaigning for which ended on Thursday. Voting in the first and second phase happened on October 28 and November 3 in 71 and 94 constituencies respectively. Counting of votes and declaration of results for all 243 constituencies of the state will be done on November 10.

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