As the stage is set for the upcoming assembly elections in Bihar, with all parties vying for victory, the spotlight has shifted to Bhojpuri superstar Pawan Singh, who met Rashtriya Lok Samata Party chief Upendra Kushwaha and BJP president JP Nadda in Delhi on Tuesday. The meeting is seen as a strategic move to help bring back the influential Kushwaha and Rajput communities into the NDA fold, particularly in the Shahabad and Magadh regions, areas where the NDA has faced significant challenges in recent years.
NDA’s Downfall In Shahabad
Bihar’s Shahabad region, comprising Bhojpur, Buxar, Rohtas, and Kaimur districts, has a total of 22 assembly seats. This region has traditionally been a stronghold of the BJP, but in election years, the alliance appears to have weakened here. In the 2020 assembly elections, out of all the seats in Shahabad, the NDA managed to win only two, both secured by the BJP, while the JDU and other allies failed to win any.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the NDA lost all four Shahabad seats, including Ara, Buxar, Sasaram, and Karakat, primarily due to a split in Rajput and Kushwaha votes. At Karakat, Upendra Kushwaha finished third after Pawan Singh contested as an independent. In Ara, Union Minister R.K. Singh faced defeat. Even in Magadh’s Jehanabad and Aurangabad constituencies, RJD candidates emerged victorious.
RJD Strikes Back
RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav grabbed the opportunity and fielded seven Kushwaha candidates in the 2024 election. This nomination was a clear target to the community that accounts for over 6% of Bihar’s population. With this strategy, he aimed to add “K” (Kushwaha) to the traditional Muslim-Yadav (MY) formula. However, out of seven seats, only two Kushwaha candidates won.
Pawan Singh: The Game-Changing Factor?
While Pawan Singh is popular as an actor-singer, his Rajput community background can prove advantageous for the NDA to woo the caste-specific vote bank. The Karakat Lok Sabha segment, part of the Shahabad region, has long been influenced by caste equations. The BJP’s loss in the last election was largely attributed to the split in Rajput and Kushwaha votes after Pawan Singh contested as an independent. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Pawan Singh was expelled from the BJP after he announced his independent candidacy for the Karakat constituency in Bihar, going against the party’s official nominee, Upendra Kushwaha. Therefore, his return to the NDA fold is yet another attempt to reunite the two vote banks.
Earlier, the saffron party had fielded Singh as a candidate from the Asansol constituency in West Bengal; however, he had declined the ticket to run from the Asansol seat. The party later selected Surinderjeet Singh Ahluwalia as its candidate for Asansol after Singh stepped down.