Bhagalpur, the largest city in eastern Bihar, has formed an identity of being a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stronghold.
While the party held the Lok Sabha seat for a decade till 2014, the Assembly constituency of Bhagalpur has been with the BJP for more than two decades.
Veteran BJP leader and Buxar MP Ashwini Kumar Choubey was the Bhagalpur MLA for four terms, until he gave up his seat to contest the Lok Sabha elections in 2014. In the bypolls that followed, the seat was won by Congress leader Ajeet Sharma, who is fighting the 2015 Assembly elections against Choubey's son Arjit Shashwat.
But the going is not as easy for Arjit as it had been for his father who won successive polls. His candidature has not gone down well with several workers of the saffron party in the region.
Vijay Shah, who is believed to be a major force behind making Bhagalpur a BJP stronghold, has parted ways with the party to contest the polls as an independent.
According to insiders, in the absence of Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Shah was expecting a BJP ticket for himself. But the denial of it upset him, and he walked out along with several party cadres in the area.
Speaking to IBNLive, Shah said, “The party has chosen a wrong candidate. I was always loyal to the party and would have been loyal even now, but the recent happenings were nothing less than injustice.”
When asked if merely the denial of ticket on one occasion compelled him to stand against the party in an electoral battle, he said, “I would not have fought the polls, but I am fighting this time on the demand of party workers who believe that the party has been unjust in its decision.”
Terming BJP candidate Arjit Shashwat as a kid, Shah claimed that “love for son will cost Choubey ji dearly and this will be the end of his political career”. He even asserted that he had the support of at least 90% of the BJP workers in the region.
Responding to the recent statement of BJP president Amit Shah where the senior leader asked the rebels to return to the party fold unconditionally, the former BJP worker said, “It was not a threat as being reported in media. He just asked us to reconsider our decision by November 8, when the counting is scheduled for."
Shah's symbol is batsman and he expects to score the winning run in Bhagalpur.
Meanwhile, the BJP has dismissed Shah as a threat. Bhagalpur district president Abhay Varman told IBNLive, “He is not a threat in any way. In fact he has been expelled for anti-party activities for six years.”
“Bhagalpur has a history of RSS, and has been our traditional stronghold. It is not about an individual at all, as party is always more important than a person,” he added.
Varman, however, conceded that the members of the party were “initially unhappy with the ticket distribution but the decision of the party leadership has been accepted by one and all off late”.
Talking about BJP's prospects in the polling on Monday, Varman said, “I must accept that we lost the previous Lok Sabha and Assembly polls due to over confidence. But we are not repeating the mistake this time. Ajeet Sharma of Congress might have won the last time, but he has no chance against our young and dynamic leader in these elections."
On October 6, BJP president Amit Shah, during a visit to Bhagalpur, had given an ultimatum to party rebels to return to the party fold as “no indiscipline would be tolerated at any cost”. He had said that everyone associated with the party must join hands to topple the Nitish Kumar government and gain power in the state.
The maiden electoral battle of BJP rebel Vijay Shah may not ensure a victory for him, but many in the constituency believe that his exit from the party would hamper the prospects of Arjit Shashwat in the contest against incumbent MLA Ajeet Sharma, as the former enjoys massive support among the cadres. Some even claim that it was Shah who was a major factor behind successive wins of senior BJP leaders Shahnawaz Hussain and Ashwini Kumar Choubey from Bhagalpur both in Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.
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