Araria Lok Sabha constituency, a key constituency among Bihar's 40 parliamentary constituencies, is all set to witness a neck-to-neck electoral battle between BJP’s sitting MP Pradeep Kumar Singh and the INDIA bloc candidate from Rashtriya Janata Dal, Shahnawaz Alam on May 7.
Araria Lok Sabha constituency elections 2019 results. | ECI
Past victories
Elections in the past two decades show that Araria has seen switching candidates between both BJP and RJD. In 1999, Sukhdev Paswan emerged victorious with an RJD ticket. By the 2004 elections, Paswan had moved to the BJP and reclaimed the seat. In 2009, the BJP put forward Pradeep Kumar Singh, securing victory once again. However, in the 2014 general elections, Mohammad Taslimuddin of the RJD won the Araria seat by defeating the BJP's Pradeep Kumar Singh. In the last 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Pradeep Kumar Singh once again regained the seat and BJP emerged victorious. He won against Sarfaraz Alam of RJD. Pradeep Kumar Singh received 618,434 votes in total, surpassing his closest rival Sarfaraz Alam from the RJD, who gathered 481,193 votes.
Araria Lok Sabha constituency candidates
Shahnawaz Alam, representing the RJD, is the son of Taslimuddin, a prominent RJD leader from the Seemanchal region. Taslimuddin secured victory in 2014. Pradeep from the BJP aims for his third win, while Shahnawaz seeks to continue the legacy of the Taslimuddin family. Both parties are vigorously campaigning for the seat. Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed an election rally in Forbesganj on April 26 in support of BJP's Pradeep Kumar Singh, while RJD's Tejashwi Yadav accompanied Shahnawaz Alam during his nomination filing on April 18.
Araria constituency: An overview
The Araria Lok Sabha constituency comprises six Vidhan Sabha constituencies: Narpatganj, Raniganj (Reserved), Forbesganj, Araria, Jokihat, and Sikti. Araria, situated in the Seemanchal region, boasts a significant Muslim voter population.
Araria faces significant challenges in socio-economic and infrastructural development, particularly concerning floods due to the presence of the Kosi river. Incomplete bridges and culverts have been a major concern for the past decade. Despite the construction of a bridge on Kosi Dhar in Kusiar village, the absence of an approach road forces people to travel an additional 15 kilometers from the Araria-Purnia four-lane NH-57 to reach Kochgama of Kusiargaon Panchayat.
The 40 seats in Bihar are undergoing polls in all seven phases. In the 2019 elections, the BJP-led NDA won 39 out of 40 seats in Bihar, while the Congress secured just one seat.
