Bihar”s Araria Lok Sabha constituency plays a key role in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. All parties are vying hard to secure the seat. A fierce competition between the NDA and India Alliance will take place on May 7th, the third phase of the election. The competition will be between BJP”s Pradeep Kumar Singh and RJD”s Shahnawaz Alam.
Pradeep Kumar Singh is the sitting MP of Araria. During the 2019 Lok Sabha election, he clinched victory over the margin of 1,37,241 votes against RJD”s Sarfaraz Alam. The competition between Sarfaraz and Pradeep was intense. During the 2014 Lok Sabha election, Md. Taslimuddin managed to win by defeating Pradeep Kumar, who won the Araria seat in the 2009 general election. It was the first time a Muslim candidate was winning the Lok Sabha election in Araria. Taslimuddin contested on RJD ticket and won against Pradeep over huge margin of 1,46,504 votes.
However, after Taslimuddin died, the seat became vacant. In the by-election following his death in 2018, Pradeep once again faced defeat against Taslimuddin”s son Sarfaraz Alam. But during the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the BJP MP won back the seat from Sarfaraz over the margin of 1,37,241 votes. Pradeep Kumar is going to lock horns with another Alam, Shahnawaz, who is also the son of Taslimuddin.
Araria gave equal opportunity to almost all the prominent political parties in the region. While Congress won the Lok Sabha election four times, BJP also won four times, where as Janata Dal and RJD won three times since independence.