Waquar Hasan| Clarion India
BEGUSARAI — Begusarai has been very much under the media glare, with the announcement of Union Minister Griraj Singh and former JNUSU leader Kanhaiya Kumar contesting election from there for Lok Sabha. It is being perceived that it is a shoulder to shoulder fight between the NDA and Grand alliance in Bihar, hence a strong candidate from other party is seen as a vote cutter.
After Kanhaiya, a strong voice against the BJP was denied the ticket by the grand alliance led by the Rashtriya Janata Dal, Tanweer Hassan got the ticket to contest from the same constituency. This made the alliance face strong criticism from the supporters of Kanhaiya. Following which the Communist Party of India jumped in to give Kanhaiya the ticket to contest from Begusarai.
Hassan, who was the runner up in 2014 Lok Sabha elections, feels that the CPI did not demonstrate moral politics by making Kanhaiya contest from Begusrai as he is the most deserving candidate from the constituency. He had secured more than 3.50 lakh votes in the 2014 elections and he feels he can only defeat the BJP candidate Giriraj Singh.
“From the mandate of the last elections, the Communist Party must be aware of the runner up for the last general elections and who is more deserving. And after having knowledge of everything if someone encroaches the area of a deserving candidate, riding high on media popularity, then it is not moral politics. It is coercion. I’m not the vote-cutter as I have my record of scoring votes to show. They are the vote cutter. Can they explain their measurement for popularity? Are only those people who appear on TV and YouTube popular? What about those who simply work among people?” asked Hassan while talking to Clarion India.
He also accused the Communist Party of pitting their candidates against Muslim candidates. He said the candidates from the Left Front are mostly contesting against Muslims. In Katihar they are fighting against Tarique Anwar, while they are also fighting against Hina and Abdul Bari Siddiqi.
“They knew that I am the candidate from here. I was the runner up from this constituency and I would definitely emerge as a winner. Then why did they decide to contest elections from here? They do not have any regard for secularism and are simply opportunists. Is putting a condition for getting a seat to join the alliance, not helping the BJP?” questioned Hassan.
In Begusarai which has 19 lakh voters, Bhumihar accounts for 19 percent of the population while Muslims make up 15 percent of the vote share. Here Yadav’s also have 12 percent of the voters.
In 2014 general elections, Hassan was defeated by BJP’s Bhola Singh with less than 50 thousand votes. In the last two decades, JD(U) and Congress’ candidates have got elected from the constituency. With the exception of 2009 when a Muslim candidate – Minazir Hasan got elected, candidates from the Bhumihar caste has always won the election from Begusarai seat between 1980 to 2014. They were mostly from JD(U) and Congress. RJD candidate never got elected during this period.
Given this background of the constituency in addition to the media popularity of Kanhaiya and Singh, the fight will be the toughest for Hassan. But he said that he is not contesting the election against any individual, be it Kanhaiya or Singh. He maintained that he is fighting to save the country and Constitution.
“Hate is being cultivated in the country. The Constitution is at stake. The constitutional rights of Muslims and Dalits are under threat. This is a national agenda. And this is our agenda,” said Hassan, who has been a member of Bihar’s Upper House, while explaining his reason to contest the election.
When asked about Kanhaiya, who is also claiming to fight for the same cause, he said, “Let the people decide.”
He also said that several fertilizer industries based in Begusarai have been shut down for a long time. He will raise this issue and will help people get better communication facilities and other basic amenities.
He also claimed that his party RJD has fought against the communalism when it was in power in the state. He rejected the claim that his party did not work for the development in the state. He maintained that at that the time, communalism was the biggest threat and his party took it head on.
