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

Saran, one of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar, goes to polls in the fifth phase of general elections on May 6. The constituency came into existence and mostly comprised parts of erstwhile Chhapra Lok Sabha constituency. 

Sitting MP of Saran is BJP's Rajiv Pratap Rudy who won from the seat for the first time in 2014. In 2009, in the first election held here following delimitation, Lalu Prasad Yadav won from here as his party - Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) - won only 2 seats in the state. 

The constituency is known as the bastion of the Lalu family as the RJD chief won from here thrice when it was called Chapra Lok Sabha constituency and once in 2009 when it was renamed Saran.

Lalu Prasad might be missing from the electioneering, but for RJD supporters in this Lok Sabha seat, the incarcerated politician still remains the "biggest leader", whose party faces an uphill task of reclaiming the bastion it lost to the BJP last election. 

For the RJD, this the first election without its star campaigner, whose younger son Tejashwi Yadav tried his best to keep the morale of his partymen up. 

"Laluji poore Bihar ke sabse bade neta hai (Lalu Prasad is the biggest leader of Bihar). He has been jailed on false charges," Nagendra Rai (52), a farmer in Sonepur village, said. Known for his signature one liners, the RJD chief, who is imprisoned in fodder scam cases, could not campaign as his bail plea was recently rejected by the Supreme Court.
 
Comprising six assembly segments, the seat, known as Chapra before the delimitation of parliamentary constituencies in 2008, was won by Prasad four times --1977, 1989, 2004 and 2009. 

However, the RJD lost Saran in 2014 after BJP candidate and former Union minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy defeated Prasad's wife and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi in 2014. 

To redeem its lost glory, the RJD has this time fielded six-time MLA Chandrika Rai, who is the father of Prasad's elder son Tej Pratap Yadav's estranged wife Aishwarya Rai. 

Yadav had filed for divorce last year in November after six months of marriage, and this strained family relation has caused some setback to the RJD in its stronghold, with the former Bihar health minister campaigning against Chandrika Rai. 

Besides Rudy and Rai, there are 10 other candidates in the fray. 

"Rai will give a tough fight to BJP candidate Rudy," G Kumar, an English professor at the Jai Prakash University here, said, claiming that caste factor will also play a major role in Saran. 

"Muslims, Yadavs and a section of Dalits are likely to vote for the 'Mahagatbhandan' (opposition RJD-Congress-RLSP alliance) candidate Rai. While extremely backward caste (EBCs), excluding Yadavs, and upper castes are strongly behind BJP-led NDA candidate Rudy," Kumar claimed. 

Rudy, a five-time MP with stints in Lok Sabha and in Rajya Sabha, is looking to take advantage of the RJD's setbacks to get re-elected from the seat for a consecutive second time. 

He was also elected to Lok Sabha in 1996 and 1999, before delimitation of Chapra. 

In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, Rudy got 3,55,120 votes, defeating Rabri Devi by a margin of over 40,000 votes. Devi got 3,14,172 votes in the last general elections. 

In Pahleja Ghat, 50-year-old Vishwanath Mahto, a tea-seller, said, "Tejashwi is a capable leader, but if Prasad would have been here, the morale and spirit of RJD workers and supporters would have been very high." Some voters in the constituency feel that votes will go for the BJP in the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

Ganesh Singh (38), a shopkeeper in Parsa village, said," We will vote in the name of Modi, not in the name of Rudy as he does not meet us to address our problems." "The Modi factor and the BJP's nationalism poll plank can help Rudy get a second consecutive win," the professor claimed. One of the 40 constituencies in Bihar, Saran, as of 2014, has 1,538,744 registered voters. 

The constituency has assembly segments Marhaura, Chapra, Garkha, Amnour, Parsa and Sonepur -- and goes to polls in the fifth phase of the general elections on May 6. 

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.

(With PTI inputs)