Digha| Kumhrar: Assembly seats in and around Patna have been considered a safe bet for BJP, with Kayastha votes being one of the factors. But this time the community appears to be upset with the party as it has given ticket to only one of three MLAs. The party has replaced the two Kayastha MLAs with candidates from other castes.
Amid all this, Jan Suraaj candidates are punching above their weight while the late Bollywood actor Sushant Rajput's cousin Divya Gautam, a former Patna University Students' Union presidential candidate, has added further colour to the election mood in Patna's Digha.
In the outgoing assembly, BJP had three Kayastha MLAs - Nitin Nabin from Bankipur, Arun Sinha from Kumhrar and Rashmi Varma from Narkatiaganj. This time, BJP has given tickets only to Nabin while the other two have been replaced.
Though the Narkatiaganj seat falls in the West Champaran district, the impact of replacing Varma, a Kayastha, with Sanjay Pandey, a Brahmin, is visible. Similarly, replacing Sinha from Kumhrar with Sanjay Gupta, a Baniya, has also not gone well with the Kayastha community.
The chatter among several BJP workers at the BJP election offices in Patna is that the party has given more than 50 tickets to the forwards, but barring Kayastha, all other caste ticket share has gone up.
In Digha, from where BJP's Sanjiv Chaurasia is contesting, bank employee Rakesh Verma, sipping tea near St Michael School and talking to colleague Rajesh Chandervanshi, says, "This time even BJP has left Kayasthas." Unlike other castes, the community is not vocal and lacks mobilisation. Chandervanshi, however, says that he doesn't think Kayasthas would vote against BJP, to which Verma reluctantly nods. However, both feel that CPI(ML)(L) nominee Divya Gautam has a vision for development of the constituency.
BJP won Kumhrar with the highest margin last time. With Jan Suraaj nominating KC Sinha, a lecturer and author of several books, the election has become trickier for the party. Congress' Indradeep Chandravanshi, an OBC, is Opposition's candidate and is likely to garner votes of Yadavs and Muslims.
Amid all this, Jan Suraaj candidates are punching above their weight while the late Bollywood actor Sushant Rajput's cousin Divya Gautam, a former Patna University Students' Union presidential candidate, has added further colour to the election mood in Patna's Digha.
In the outgoing assembly, BJP had three Kayastha MLAs - Nitin Nabin from Bankipur, Arun Sinha from Kumhrar and Rashmi Varma from Narkatiaganj. This time, BJP has given tickets only to Nabin while the other two have been replaced.
Though the Narkatiaganj seat falls in the West Champaran district, the impact of replacing Varma, a Kayastha, with Sanjay Pandey, a Brahmin, is visible. Similarly, replacing Sinha from Kumhrar with Sanjay Gupta, a Baniya, has also not gone well with the Kayastha community.
The chatter among several BJP workers at the BJP election offices in Patna is that the party has given more than 50 tickets to the forwards, but barring Kayastha, all other caste ticket share has gone up.
In Digha, from where BJP's Sanjiv Chaurasia is contesting, bank employee Rakesh Verma, sipping tea near St Michael School and talking to colleague Rajesh Chandervanshi, says, "This time even BJP has left Kayasthas." Unlike other castes, the community is not vocal and lacks mobilisation. Chandervanshi, however, says that he doesn't think Kayasthas would vote against BJP, to which Verma reluctantly nods. However, both feel that CPI(ML)(L) nominee Divya Gautam has a vision for development of the constituency.
BJP won Kumhrar with the highest margin last time. With Jan Suraaj nominating KC Sinha, a lecturer and author of several books, the election has become trickier for the party. Congress' Indradeep Chandravanshi, an OBC, is Opposition's candidate and is likely to garner votes of Yadavs and Muslims.
