Buxar constituency: Ashwini Kumar Choubey facing passive resistance from Lalmuni

BUXAR: Former health minister in Nitish Kumar cabinet Ashwini Kumar Choubey, who shifted from his home district Bhagalpur to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Buxar, is still facing passive resistance from another former health minister Lalmuni Choubey, who had pressed for his renomination as BJP candidate. Lalmuni, who represented the constituency four times, had lost to sitting RJD MP Jagdanand Singh by over 2,238 votes in 2009 elections.
Lalmuni had filed his nomination papers as an Independent and after repeated persuasions from the BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, he agreed to withdraw his papers and attended an election meeting addressed by Modi on April 2 week here. Claiming he was not keeping in sound health, Lalmuni is not campaigning in support of the BJP candidate.
Sources close to him said since he was denied ticket on health ground how one can expect him to remain active in campaign at Buxar. He is unwell. His son Shishir said Lalmuni would, however, stay in Varanasi from where Narendra Modi is seeking election to Lok Sabha.
Local BJP leaders-Ajay Yadav and Madhav Chandra Srivastava present at the party's election office, said the BJP candidate is getting support of all party workers in the constitutency. BJP president Rajnath Singh will address an election meeting at Ramgarh on Tuesday.
Ramgarh is the assembly segment of the RJD candidate and former minister in Lalu-Rabri cabinet Jagadanand Singh who is banking on the development works in the constitutency.
The constitutency spread over Buxar, Rohtas and Kaimur districts still faces two unattended problems- closure of textile mill at Dumraon and presence of arsenic in drinking water. The much-awaited Malai barrage is still incomplete. Buxar-Ara road is in very bad shape, the electorates complained.
In the 2009 elections, Dadan Singh alias Pahalwan who had contested the polls as an Independent, had polled 1.22 lakh votes. Now, he is contesting as Bahujan Samaj Party nominee. Shyamlal Kushwaha, who as BSP nominee in 2009 had polled 1.27 lakh votes, is now a JD (U) candidate.
Buxar had sent the then maharaja of Dumraon Kamal Singh, former union ministers A P Sharma and K K Tiwari to Lok sabha in the past. For five terms, the seat was won by Congress candidates, twice by CPI and four-time winner was BJP's Lalmuni Chaubey. In 2009, the seat was won by RJD.
On Monday, LJP president Ramvilas Paswan and former deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi jointly addressed an election meeting in support of BJP candidate having a sizable upper caste and dalit voters. With Shahpur assembly segment shifted to Ara following delimitation, the number of Brahmin voters has declined in Buxar parliamentary constituency.
Buxar constituency comprises six assembly segments - Brahmpur, Buxar, Dumraon and Rajpur (reserved) assembly segments in Buxar district, Dinara in Rohtas and Ramgarh in Kaimur district. Out of six assembly segments in this parliamentry constituency three: Dumraon, Dinara and Rajpur have JD(U) MLAs, Buxar and Brahmpur are represented by BJP while Ramgarh assembly seat is in RJD's kitty.
RJD sitting MP Jagadanand Singh, who is seeking second term, has been facing the wrath of contractors and liquor traders of the district. Road construction department has slapped a fine and showcause notices on several road contractors of the district after the RJD MP complained of low quality construction of roads.
It may be a difficult journey for the sitting RJD MP but he is very popular among the Rajputs, said Kamal Bihari Singh, a farmer of Ramobariya village of Buxar assembly segment. However, Mithilesh Kumar Singh, convenor of Lok Samta Manch, is all praise for the sitting MP. He said, "Our MP is second parliamentarian of the country after one from Andhra Pradesh who put 681 in parliament in which 589 are related to Buxar constituency. He has given several buses to schools, Rs one crore for installation of transformers and got constructed several schools buildings. He has spent Rs 19.5 crore from his MPLAD fund for the development of this constituency."
But, riding on Narendra Modi wave, BJP nominee Choubey, who is running neck and neck with the RJD's Jagadanand in the popularity stake, is confident of wresting the seat from the RJD claiming young voters of all castes will vote for the BJP aggressively.