Kumar Rajiv Nayan
Ara : Eleven candidates are in fray in Ara parliamentary constituency (PC) in Bhojpur district in General Elections 2019. In 2004 Lok Sabha polls too, 11 candidates had contested for this seat.
From 1952 to 1971, three to seven candidates had contested election from Ara PC and the number of candidates touched double digit in 1977 parliamentary elections when 10 candidates had contested from the constituency. Since then the number of candidates kept increasing in every subsequent election and the number of candidates contesting for the seat reached 61 in 1996.
In 2004, Kanti Singh of RJD had defeated her nearest rival Ram Naresh Ram alias Paras Nath Ram of CPI(ML) by a huge margin and the Ranveer Sena supremo, Brahmeshwar Nath Singh alias Mukhia Ji was on third position while Ashok Verma of JD(U) finished fourth. The rest 7 had lost their security money.
Since 2004, many changes took place in the Ara parliamentary constituency. In 2004, RJD and the CPI(ML) were in direct contest in the constituency. But, in 2019 LS polls, RJD allotted Ara seat to the CPI(ML) from its quota. The RJD is actively canvassing for the CPI(ML) nominee in 2019.
In 1952, five candidates had contested election but three lost their security deposit while 3 candidates were in the fray in both 1957 and 1962 and one candidate lost his security deposit in each election. Likewise, 6 candidates were in fray in 1967 Lok Sabha elections from the seat, 7 in 1971, and 10 in 1977 and only two in each election could save their security deposit.
In 1980 LS polls 3 out 13 candidates, in 1984 polls 2 out of 24 candidates, in 1989 polls 3 out of 21 candidates, in 1991 polls 5 of 38 candidates, in 1996 polls 4 of 61 candidates, in 1998 polls 3 of 16 candidates, in 1999 polls 3 out of 14, in 2004 polls 4 of 11, in 2009 polls 2 out of 16, and in 2014 polls 2 out of 14 candidates succeeded in saving their security deposit.