Hajipur Lok Sabha constituency: Candidates for 2019 LS poll, past results, all updates

Hajipur, one of the 40 Lok Sabha seats, goes to polls in the fifth phase of general elections on May 6. People of the constituency, used to seeing Ram Vilas Paswan as their MP, are seeing the first electoral battle sans the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief.

Hajipur, a reserved seat, has for long remained synonymous with Paswan, who had first won it in 1977 riding the anti-Emergency wave and registering a record margin. Now, he has announced his retirement from direct elections while making it clear that he was not bidding adieu to politics.

Paswan, the eight-time MP from Hajipur, has decided to opt out of the race to the Lok Sabha and fielded his brother Pashupati Kumar Paras who is facing a tough fight from Grand Alliance candidate Shiv Chandra Ram.

The BJP has given the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) six seats in Bihar and promised Paswan a Rajya Sabha berth. In absence of the VIP candidate, RJD's Hajipur candidate Ram is campaigning hard to wrest the high-profile reserved seat from the LJP.

"Ram Vilas Paswan has done a lot for the development of this region. But since Paras is contesting this time, we will have to think whom to vote for," said Ramnath Rai, a banana farmer from Terasia village of Hajipur.

But for some, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's image and the recent Balakot airstrikes have had a strong appeal.

Paswan had defeated Congress' Sanjeev Prasad Toni in 2014 polling 4,55,652 of the total of 9,04,753 votes cast. He had lost the seat by around 40,000 votes in 2009 to Ram Sundar Das of the JD(U).

This is the first time that the JD(U) and the LJP are together in the BJP-led NDA. This may bolster the prospects of Paras who faces competition from RJD's Shivchandra Ram.

Ram is a sitting MLA and stated to be popular among Dalits and Yadavs who normally back his party and have a large presence in Hajipur. 

There are a total of 11 contestants in Hajipur trying their luck. 

This Lok Sabha seat will test the waters for the RJD too as it comprises Raghopur and Mahua assembly segments represented by jailed party supremo Lalu Prasad's sons Tejashwi Yadav and Tej Pratap Yadav respectively.

The parliamentary constituency comprises six assembly segments: Hajipur, Lalganj, Mahua, Raja Pakar, Raghopur and Mahnar.

A cross-section of voters in the business community and workers of micro, small and medium enterprises in the constituency asserted that their businesses were hit due to demonetisation and GST, but argue they have no option but to vote for the NDA.

Central government welfare schemes like Ujjawala, providing free cooking gas connection to poor households, PM Awas Yojana, construction of toilets and roads have worked well with the voters in both urban and rural areas of Muzaffarpur and Hajipur.

The contest in Bihar is two-way in most seats with NDA pitted against Mahagathbandhan. While Janata Dal (United) is part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) which comprises of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), the Bihar Mahagathbandhan comprises Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Congress, Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP), Hindustan Awam Morcha (HAM) and Vikasshil Insan Party (VIP).

The Congress got nine constituencies as per the seat-sharing arrangements, while the RJD has 20 out of which it has forgone Ara in favour of the CPI(ML), which has returned the favour by announcing that the ultra-Left outfit would not field its candidate from Pataliputra, which would be contested by Lalu Prasad's eldest daughter Misa Bharti. 

Besides, Upendra Kushwaha's RLSP is contesting five seats and Jitan Ram Manjhis HAM is fighting three. The VIP, founded and headed by Bollywood set designer-turned-politician Mukesh Sahni, has got three seats out of the 40 in Bihar.

The polling on this seat will be held in the fifth phase of Lok Sabha elections on May 6. Five constituencies of Bihar's 40 Lok Sabha seats - Madhubani, Muzaffarpur, Saran, Hajipur and Sitamarhi - will go to polls in the third phase. A total of 82 candidates are in fray in the five constituencies that would go to polls.

The results of the  Lok Sabha election 2019 will be declared on May 23.