New Delhi: Tej Pratap Yadav, former Bihar minister and elder son of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, has won from Hasanpur assembly constituency in Samastipur district.
He beat two-time sitting JD(U) MLA Raj Kumar Ray by 21,139 votes, according to the Election Commission website.
Tej Pratap, who has also been the health minister of Bihar, trailed for some time in the morning but raced past Ray later and maintained his lead. Manish Kumar from the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) also contested from this seat.
In 2015, Tej Pratap had contested from Mahua constituency in Vaishali. He won after defeating Ravindra Ray of the Hindustani Awam Morcha. According to media reports, Tej Pratap chose to contest from the Hasanpur seat instead of Mahua owing to rumours of estranged wife Aishwarya Rai contesting from Mahua.
Aishwarya is the daughter of veteran MLA Chandrika Rai, son of former Bihar CM Daroga Prasad Rai. Chandrika Rai was associated with the RJD but turned to the JD(U) after a fallout over daughter Aishwarya’s divorce proceedings.
Aishwarya has accused the Yadavs of domestic violence. Amid a bitter divorce battle with the Yadavs, the election campaign took a personal turn when she pitched for Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
Rai not fielded at Mahua
However, Rai wasn’t fielded by the JD(U) for the Mahua seat. Instead, the party picked Asma Parveen, daughter of former RJD minister Ilyas Hussain, as its candidate. By fielding a Muslim candidate in Mahua, the JD(U) has attempted to gain both the BJP traditional votes and the Muslim vote-bank.
This also made Mahua a risky constituency for Tej Pratap. The Hasanpur seat is considered to be a Yadav stronghold.
Meanwhile, Tej Pratap’s younger brother and the RJD’s chief ministerial candidate Tejashwi Yadav is pitted against the BJP’s Satish Kumar at Vaishali’s Raghopur constituency.
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