Gaya: RJD’s Young Gun Kumar Sarvjeet Vs Former Bihar CM And NDA Nominee Jitan Manjhi (image-X/KumarSarvjeet6)
NDA nominee and former Bihar chief minister, Hindustani Awam Morcha-Secular (HAM-S) founder and NDA nominee Jitan Ram Manjhi’s attempt of winning the Gaya Lok Sabha seat was ruined by Rajesh Kumar who won over 50 percent of the votes on Janata Dal ticket in 1991. And now Jitan Ram Manjhi will once again fight from the Gaya but this time, his opponent is Kumar’s son Kumar Sarvjeet.
Senior Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and former agriculture minister of Bihar, Kumar Sarvjeet, is the INDIA coalition nominee from the Gaya Lok Sabha constituency. His father, former Gaya MP Rajesh Kumar from the Lok Janshakti Party, was shot dead while campaigning for the Assembly elections on January 22, 2005. Kumar’s close aide, Ghulam Sarwar Mirani, bodyguard, and driver were also murdered.
Following the murder of his father, which triggered political unrest in the state, Kumar Sarvjeet joined politics. Belonging to the Dalit community of Paswan, Mr. Sarvjeet was elected as the MLA from Bodh Gaya in the 14th Bihar Legislative Assembly elections held in 2009.
Victory could be tough for Mr. Sarvjeet as caste plays a crucial role in the politics of Bihar. The RJD leader is reported to be approachable, running a more visible campaign than Manjhi with more crowds than those seen in BJP events. However, the number of participations may not necessarily translate into votes.
Although Manjhi is considered to be an absent MP who has done very little in terms of Gaya’s development with projects stuck in the pipeline for years, the Modi factor could potentially sway the votes in Manjhi’s favour, observed political analysts. Notably, Gaya has only been represented by MPs from the Manjhi caste since 1999.
Mr. Sarvjeet has an engineering degree from Jharkhand’s Birla Institute of Technology.
In the 2009 and 2014 elections, Hari Manjhi from the BJP represented the seat. However, following the alliance forged between the NDA and the JD(U), Vijay Manjhi from the JD(U) won the seat with 4.6 lakh votes. He was closely followed by HAM-S candidate Jitam Ram Manjhi, who won 3.1 lakh votes.
In the 2015 state legislative assembly elections, Mr. Sarvjeet was elected as a member of the Mahagathbandan or Grand Alliance, a coalition of the RJD, Congress, CPI, CPI(M). The RJD leader secured victory in 2020 as well. He has also served as the state’s tourism minister from August 2022 to January 2024.
The Gaya Lok Sabha constituency comprises Sherghati, Barachatti (SC reserved), Bodh Gaya (SC), Gaya Town, Belaganj, and Wazirganj. 30.39 percent of the population in the constituency comprises the SC population, while 11.2 percent are Muslims, as per the 2011 census.
