Patna: The poll scene in Bihar has turned interesting with a dreaded gangster locked in a straight contest with the widow of a Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) politician whom he was accused of shooting dead some 17 years back and is now seeking their support to bring “peace” in the constituency.
Ritlal Yadav who faces a total of 14 criminal cases as serious as murder and extortion takes on BJP candidate Asha Devi Sinha in the poll arena. He has been fielded by the main opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) from Danapur assembly seat in Patna district but the party says the candidate has not been convicted in any case by the court so far.
Asha’s husband Satyanarayan Sinha, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen near a village in Danapur block in April 2003 after which a case was registered against Yadav. With more than a dozen cases pending against him, he passed most of his time cooling his heels in the jail since then. He came out of the jail on bail only in August this year.
Although he had been contesting elections from behind bars, this is for the first time in two decades that he will be encountering his arch-rival Asha Devi in the poll arena. “What kind of change the RJD wants to bring in Bihar politics by giving tickets to persons like Ritlal Yadav?” asks Asha Devi who lost her husband two decades back as a result of political rivalry. “Who doesn’t know Ritlal Yadav killed my husband? And, who doesn’t know he is a notorious gangster?” she adds with anxiety on her face.
But, the RJD claims none could be described as a “gangster” until he is convicted by the court. According to the poll affidavits filed by Yadav, he has not been convicted in any of the 14 cases pending against him so far.
Strong grip
What’s more strange, Yadav holds a strong grip over his voters in the entire Danapur assembly constituency. His influence on the voters can be underlined from the fact that he won the elections to Bihar Legislative Council’s Patna local authority seat from prison in 2015 as an Independent candidate although both the ruling National Democratic Alliance and the Opposition Grand Alliance had fielded strong candidates in the fray.
Keeping in view his holds over the voters, the RJD had earlier appointed him the party’s general secretary just ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls to dissuade him from joining the poll fray from Patliutra seat where Misa Bharti, eldest daughter of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, was contesting elections against BJP’s Ram Kripal Yadav. However, Misa lost the election by a slender margin of 40,000 votes.
According to a report, as many as 38 candidates allotted tickets by the RJD this year have criminal antecedents. “The RJD talks about changing Bihar but by giving tickets to criminals in such a large number, what kind of message the RJD is giving,” wondered an opposition leader Sanjay Singh.
