Lok Sabha elections: On Nitish Kumar's turf, CPI (ML) eyes an opening

In the 2020 Bihar Assembly elections, the Janata Dal (United) (JD-U) won five of the seven seats that fall within the Nalanda Lok Sabha constituency. Its ally, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), also won a seat. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar hails from Nalanda and he had represented it in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls. His party’s dominance on the seat has been a barometer of his personal popularity.
 

In the last three polls — 2009, 2014 and 2019 — JDU’s Kaushalendra Kumar has won from Nalanda. Kurmis, the community Nitish hails from, is estimated to comprise a fourth of its electorate. For the 2024 battle, Kaushalendra faces Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation)’s (CPI-ML’s) Sandeep Saurav. 

 

As part of the Rashtriya Janata Dal-led alliance in Bihar, Nalanda is one of the three seats on which the Left party is contesting. 

Saurav, 37, is a doctorate from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, and won the 2020 Bihar Assembly poll from Patna’s Paliganj Assembly seat.
 

The Communist Party of India (CPI) had a significant influence on the seat in the 1980s, winning it in 1980, 1984 and 1991. 

However, with the emergence of Nitish as the preeminent Kurmi leader in Bihar’s politics, the seat has remained with the JDU, and before that with its earlier avatar of Samata Party. Socialist leader George Fernandes won the seat as a Samata Party candidate in 1996, 1998 and 1999.