How Rupauli By-Polls Gives Pappu Yadav An Opportunity To Massage His Ego

After losing to Pappu Yadav in Purnia in the recently held Lok Sabha elections, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Bima Bharti is seeking his help to win the Assembly by-polls in Rupauli.

Bima Bharti is a three-time Janata Dal (United) [JD(U)] MLA of Rupauli. However, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, she resigned and joined RJD to contest the Parliamentary elections.

In the Congress-RJD alliance, Congress wanted to contest in Purnia and Pappu Yadav was expected to get the Congress ticket, as he had merged his Jan Adhikar Party (JAP) with Congress before the elections.

However, RJD didn't leave this seat for Congress and instead gave the ticket to Bima Bharti. Pappu Yadav then contested as an Independent and won while Bima Bharti's deposit was confiscated.

Now for the Rupauli by-polls, the RJD has again expressed faith in Bima Bharti and gave her the ticket. JD(U) has fielded Kaladhar Prasad Mandal and former Rupauli MLA Shankar Singh is contesting as an Independent.

Bima Bharti has defeated Shankar Singh thrice, twice when he contested on Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) ticket and once as an Independent. In 2020, Kaladhar Prasad Mandal contested as an Independent.

Despite having lost to Pappu Yadav by a margin of 5.4 lakh votes in the Lok Sabha elections, Bima Bharti reached his residence to seek his support. However, Pappu Yadav has not revealed his decision on the matter.

However, Pappu Yadav's victory was an answer to RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav and former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, who did not let Congress contest on the seat.

Pappu Yadav was once considered close to Lalu Yadav but was expelled from RJD over alleged anti-party activities. He then formed his own party JAP but could not achieve desirable success in elections.

The former RJD leader may now want the father-son Yadav duo to bow before him and seek his help personally to massage his ego. However, Pappu Yadav met Bharti when she came to his residence.

He said that he can't stop anyone from coming to his residence and that he has family relations with Bharti. However, he clarified that even in family there are different ideologies and he will decide on the matter later.

Bharti's husband Awadhesh Mandal is a strongman. Similarly, another candidate Shankar Singh and Purnia MP Pappu Yadav are also strongmen, making the contest in Rupauli a contest of strongmen.

Rupauli is one of the six Assembly constituencies that come under Purnia Parliamentary constituency. The voting here is on 10 July, along with 12 other Assembly constituencies. The counting of votes will take place on 13 July.