Lok Sabha polls phase 4: Kanhaiya Kumar vs Giriraj Singh in Bihar's Begusarai

Bihar's Begusarai is set for an interesting electoral battle in the fourth phase of election scheduled for April 29. While the BJP has fielded Union minister Giriaj Singh, the Left Front has pitted Kanhaiya Kumar against him.

Begusarai is referred to as Leningrad of Bihar - Leftists equate the city with Leningrad as the cradle of revolution.

Begusarai, though with the BJP now, has seen a very long association with the Left - starting in the 1930s when the landless villagers revolted against the land owners and seized their land. The association continued for decades.

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This is the same reason why the Left is backing Kanhaiya Kumar who, in 2016, spoke against the establishment (the Centre) vowing to free the society of various social evils as a Jawaharlal Nehru student. The Left is determined to oust the BJP government at the Centre and have found their 'Che' in the form of Kanhaiya. The Communist Party of India (CPI) has claimed that Kanhaiya was getting "excellent" support from all segments of the society.

An energetic campaign has propelled Kanhaiya Kumar into the centrestage of electoral contest in Begusarai but many see his rising graph posing a bigger threat to the opposition RJD than the ruling BJP.

Speculations have been rife that RJD founding president Lalu Prasad had initially thought of backing Kanhaiya whom he had applauded for having displayed fortitude while he was accused of sedition and put behind bars. But, he retracted at the instance of his younger son Tejashwi Yadav who said the CPI nominee belonged to the Bhumihar caste and hence supporting him may anger the party's own cadre which is dominated by Yadavs and Muslims.

Interestingly, Giriraj Singh also belongs to the Bhumihar caste. Known for his hardline views that have often triggered controversies, Singh said his fight from this parliamentary constituency is against a "gang" working for "breaking up" India, and asserted that he represents the agenda of cultural nationalism and development.

Singh had publicly expressed his anguish over the shift but was placated by the central leadership with party president Amit Shah himself reaching out to him.

Singh asserted the BJP-led NDA would improve its 2014 tally of 31 seats in Bihar (which has total 40 Lok Sabha seats) and it is Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself who is the alliance candidate on every seat and all contesting leaders "are his symbols".

The BJP supporters in Begusarai and other Lok Sabha seats in the region assert that the appeal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi remains a big draw for voters, while the opposition's alliance is hoping to counter it with its social arithmetic at several places.

If the Modi factor is powering the BJP's campaign, the alliance of the Lalu Prasad's RJD, Upendra Kushwaha's RLSP and the Congress is betting on a formidable social equation in these seats, including Ujiarpur, where Kushwaha is taking on Bihar BJP chief Nityanand Rai to make the going difficult for the saffron party.

Both Ujiarpur and Begusarai were won by the BJP in 2014.

In the 2014 polls, BJP's Bhola Singh, who died in October last year, had defeated Lalu Prasad-led RJD's Tanveer Hasan, who is again in the fray, with a margin of 5.4 per cent votes (more than 58,000). The JD(U)-backed CPI had finished a distant third with near 93,000 votes. Singh had got over 4.29 lakh votes.