Aurangabad: Where BJP's Three-Time MP Faced Defeat Against RJD's Abhay Kumar Kushwaha

In a significant victory for the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), party candidate Abhay Kumar Kushwaha ended the BJP’s winning streak and won the Aurangabad Lok Sabha seat with 4,65,567 votes, defeating three-time MP Sushil Kumar Singh with a margin of 79,111 votes. Singh bagged 3,86,456 votes this time.

The former MLA from Tikari constituency in the Gaya district of Bihar, RJD’s Abhay Kumar Kushwaha, was a former Janata Dal (United) member, where he served as the district president and the secretary of the party for Gaya district. In 2018, he became the state president of the youth wing of the party, replacing MP Santosh Kushwaha. In the 2020 assembly elections, the party fielded Kushwaha from Belaganj instead of Tikari. Due to growing discontent with the party, Kushwaha joined RJD.

Before the 2015 state assembly elections, Kushwaha made headlines after a video of him dancing with a bar dancer and showering money on her went viral. Kushwaha was criticized by the media and the opposition for his obscene behaviour as a political candidate. In the 2020 Bihar Assembly elections, Kushwaha was revealed to have a total of 14 criminal cases lodged against him, including allegations of looting and obstructing government contract work,

His opponent, BJP’s Sushil Kumar Singh, the incumbent MP from Aurangabad constituency. Singh won the Lok Sabha seat in 2014 with 3 lakh votes, beating Congress candidate Nikhil Kumar, who won 2.4 lakh votes. Singh retained his seat in 2019 as well, with 4.3 lakh votes.

The Aurangabad Lok Sabha seat is one of the four seats the RJD has secured victory over in Bihar. The other RJD wins are in Patliputra, Buxar and Jahanabad.