PURNEA, Feb 12: Purnea is all set to witness a multi-cornered contest this election. The candidates of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress are campaigning against each other defying all formulas of the formation of the Jan Morcha (RJD+Congress+JMM+RJP). Also in the fray are the heavyweights of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP).However, the dark horse to watch in this constituency is an independent candidate, Moidur Rahman, who after being denied a ticket from the Samajwadi Party, is gunning for the SP candidate, Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav. Pappu Yadav is a sitting MP from here who won by over 3 lakh votes in 1996. This time it seems that it is not going to be a cake-walk for him.
Moidur Rahman commands the bulk of Muslim votes and there is likely to be a sharp division in the Muslim vote bank much to the dismay of Laloo Yadav's RJD, which is heavily banking on the Muslim-Yadav combination. The RJD candidate, Dilip Kr Yadav, is a sitting MLA from the Dhamdahaassembly constituency and is a prodigy of the infamous R K Rana, an accused in the Rs 950-crore fodder scam.
Pappu Yadav is beset with lack of old and experienced hands as most of them have either deserted him or are behind bars. In fact, one-time close aide to Pappu Yadva -- Kakoo Khan -- has now jumped the fence to Dilip Kr Yadav and is piloting the RJD's campaign in the Muslim dominated areas.
In yet another move some hundred Muslims, in order to give a stable government at the Centre and place Atal Behari Vajpayee as the prime minister, have announced their decision to join the BJP. "We have not given BJP a chance and we want that Vajpayee should also be tested," said Mohammad Kalimuddin, a resident of Jallalgarh.
As far as the Muslim voters are concerned, they are still undecided and the feeling here is that at the eleventh hour the Muslim community may hoodwink the BJP and Moidur Rahman. In fact, Rahman may end up as being ``vote-cuttwa''(a term which means that the candidate has no chance ofwinning yet has the capability to damage others' chances).
"Even the `sarkari party' (read Rashtriya Janata Dal) will be unable to garner more than 50,000 Muslim-Yadav votes," says Manjar Yadav of Dhamdaha.The BJP candidate, Jai Krishna Mandal, is concentrating mainly on the four lakh kurmis, koeris, banias and upper caste voters apart from the sizeable presence of harijans and adivasis. On the other hand, the Congress candidate, Udai Singh, in banking on the rajputs, forwards, brahmins and Muslim votes.
It is feared in the BJP camp here that the Muslims may highlight the Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh (RSS) culture to take away the Muslim votes from them. Another fear haunting them is the role of the Congress candidate, who is concentrating on the areas where the banias, brahmins, rajputs and bhumihars and even the Kurmis, are influenced more by the Samta Party than the BJP, their ally.
Taking this factor into account, the BJP members have started to call the Congress candidate as ``vote-cuttwa''.
TheMuslims are also of the view that the turncoat politician, Moidur Rahman, will be a weak candidate and ``he should leave the field for the Congress candidate''.
With so many factions in the Muslim community itself, it is more likely that the Muslim votes here are destined to be fragmented giving an upper hand to the BJP and the sitting SP candidate, Pappu Yadav, and RJD's Dilip Kr Yadav.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
