The Hindu : RJD, BJP retain seats in byelections

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 03, 2003

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RJD, BJP retain seats in byelections

By K. Balchand

PATNA DEC. 2. The ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has retained two Assembly seats, while the BJP retained the third, the byelections for which were held on November 20.

The RJD won both the reserved seats of Fatuha and Barachatti defeating the Janata Dal (U) nominees. The BJP won the Sitamarhi seat defeating the RJD candidate. In Barachatti (SC),

Samata Devi of the RJD polled 30,280 votes against her nearest rival, Rajesh Kumar of the JD(U), who secured 23,291 votes. Similarly, riding on a sympathy wave the BJP's Sunil Kumar won the Sitamarhi seat by a margin of 44,343 votes polling 73,687 votes against his nearest RJD rival, Shahid Ali Khan.

The RJD's victory at Fatuha (SC) is significant as both the Railway Minister, Nitish Kumar, and the former Union Minister and Lok Janshakti Party president, Ram Vilas Paswan, had a stake in it.

Om Prakash Paswan of the RJD romped home by a margin of 2,745 votes, in a four-cornered contest.

He garnered 43,148 votes, while his nearest rival, Saryu Paswan of the JD(U), logged 40,403 votes.

To Mr. Paswan's consternation, his relative, Punit Rai, who had represented the seat on several occasions in the past, was pushed to the fourth place with the CPI(ML) taking the third place. Mr. Paswan has been striving to give leverage to the third front in the State, but Mr. Rai failed in the earlier byelections from Asthawan (Nalanda) and Babubarhi (Darbhanga).

The RJD leader, Laloo Prasad Yadav, expressed happiness over the results. His party candidate won from Fatuha in Barh Parliamentary constituency, the bastion of Mr. Nitish Kumar.

The Samata Party, which contested under the JD(U) symbol as a prelude to their merger, alleged that the administrative machinery was misused in the election.

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