BJP won’t let Bihar CM Nitish Kumar have a free run in home district Nalanda

PATNA: The BJP has worked out a strategy to create trouble for Bihar CM Nitish Kumar on his home turf in Nalanda district. Despite the Modi-wave, Kumar’s JD(U) had won the Nalanda seat in the in the 2014 parliamentary elections.

Of the seven seats in Nalanda district, Kumar has kept six. One of the problems Kumar is facing is that two sitting MLAs of Nalanda have already joined the BJP. Ally RJD will field its candidate in Hilsa. In the 2010 polls, JD(U) had bagged six seats while BJP had won Rajgir (SC) seat. Then, JD(U) and BJP were in alliance.

This time, all eyes are on the Nalanda’s Islampur seat where BJP has surprised one and all by selecting Virendra Gope as its candidate. This despite the party welcoming JD(U) rebel MLA Rajiv Ranjan into its fold. Ranjan, who was close to former CM Jitan Manjhi, joined the BJP in the hope of getting a ticket.

Since the BJP does not want to leave anything to chance, it preferred Gope as its nominee in view of his good show in the last polls. Gope was then an RJD candidate and had emerged as the runner up. "BJP knows it can’t bag Kurmi votes in Nalanda and thus it has kept its eye on the Yadav votes by selecting Virendra," a source said.

Rajgir (SC) is another seat where JD(U) is still to select its nominee to fight against BJP’s eight-time MLA SN Arya. In Hilsa, RJD has fielded its spokesperson Shakti Yadav in the hope of making the Kurmi-Yadav combination in its favour.