Lok Sabha elections: Yadav stronghold in Madhepura set to stay in focus

Madhepura, which lies in the flood-prone Kosi river valley, has been a ‘Yadav’ stronghold ever since Bindeshwari Prasad Mandal, the man who chaired the Second Backward Class Commission, better known as the Mandal Commission, won the seat in 1968 and again in 1977.
 

Madhepura has since sent such leaders as former Union minister Sharad Yadav, former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad and Pappu (Rajesh Ranjan) Yadav, to the Lok Sabha. 
 

In 2019, Janata Dal (United)’s Dinesh Chandra Yadav comprehensively defeated Rashtriya Janata Dal’s ageing leader Sharad Yadav. The latter had parted ways with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and quit the JD (U) when Kumar returned to the fold of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance. 
 

Sharad Yadav made peace with his one-time rival Lalu Prasad to contest from Madhepura. He won the seat on four occasions, in 1991, 1996, 1999 and 2009), and lost from it in 1998, 2004, 2014 and 2019. In 1998 and 2004, Sharad Yadav lost to Lalu Prasad.

According to the estimates of political parties, at least a third of the constituency’s electorate are Yadavs, adding grist to a local adage, “Rome Pope ka, Madhepura Gope ka (the Pope rules Rome, Yadavs rule Madhepura). 
 

For the 2024 battle, the RJD-led grand alliance has fielded Kumar Chandradeep Yadav, an English professor in a Patna college. He is the son of former Madhepura MP Ramendra Kumar Yadav, who won from the seat on a Janata Dal ticket in 1989. 
 

Of the six assembly segments of Madhepura, JD (U) legislators represent four, and RJD and BJP one each.