Bhagalpur : Vijay Sah, a senior BJP office-bearer and well-known businessman of Bhagalpur has just inaugurated his election office amidst loud sloganeering and cheers. His election symbol is a cricket batsman but his supporters are chanting ”Narendra Modi Zindabad”. The idea is to tell the voters of Bhagalpur that Sah is the real candidate of Modi even though the BJP may have fielded someone else as its official nominee.
As if the formidable caste combination of the JDU-RJD alliance were not enough, the rebellion within BJP in several assemblies is turning out to be a huge challenge for the party. From Bhagalpur to Siwan, that is the eastern to western ends of the state, BJP poll managers are burning the midnight oil to convince the rebels to support the party”s official candidates. Wherever the rebels are refusing to withdraw their nomination, the effort is to soften them to keep the damage minimum.
While there are at least a dozen such rebels challenging the party”s prospects all over Bihar, Bhagalpur is turning out to be a typical case. The official candidate is Arijit Shashwat, the son of BJP MP Ashwini Choubey. Shashwat”s candidature had become the source of much controversy even before the party released the list of candidates. The complaint was about giving away the ticket to a neta”s son while ignoring the claims of senior contenders. What the party did not foresee was that one of the top contenders, Vijay Sah, filed nomination against Shashwat in open rebellion. Another BJP ex-candidate Nabhay Chaudhary also filed his papers. With Bhagalpur voting in the first phase (Oct 12), backroom managers of president Amit Shah like CR Patil and RSS leaders like Saudan Singh were pressed into service. They managed to convince Chaudhary to withdraw but Sah remained adamant.
