Khagaria is among 40 seats of Lok Sabha in Bihar which is set to acknowledge the power battle in third phase of election. As part of the Munger Division, Khagaria town is the administrative headquarters of Khagaria district and is one of the least populated districts of Bihar, as only 1,276,677 people reside here, as per 2011 Census records.
History of Farak-Kiya or Khagaria:
It is one region in Bihar to witness recurrence of floods annually as five major rivers – The Ganga, The Gandak, The Bagmati, The Kamala and The Koshi pass through the area of the subdivision of Khagaria that is why, it does not possess any historical site of importance.
According to the history, commonly known in this part, it is said that during the time of Emperor Akbar, revenue minister Raja Todarmal had been entrusted with the duty of making a survey of the entire area, but he failed to do it due to difficult terrain, rivers and dense forests. So, he named it Farakiya (Farak in urdu means separate). He advised that this area should be excluded, in other words, he adopted the policy of “Farak Kiya” and that is why the area is known as “Farkiya Pargana“.
Economy of the district is dependent entirely on agriculture and its two main allied activities are horticulture and dairy.
Power Battle between Mehboob Ali Kaiser and Son of Mallah Mukesh Sahani:
Khagaria Lok Sabha seat will go for polls in third phase on 23rd April where the main contest is between Mehboob Kaiser Ali of the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and Vikasheel Insaf Party (VIP) chief Son of Mallah Mukesh Sahani. The voters are tight lipped in Khagaria. It has six assembly segments- Simri Bakhtiyarpur, Hasanpur, Alauli, Khagaria, Beldaur and Parbatta.
JDU has its MLA in Simri Bakhtiyarpur, Hasanpur, Khagaria, Beldaur and Parbatta while Alouli (SC) segment is represented by the RJD. This at the assembly constituency level gives LJP’s Kaiser Ali an upper hand but RJD MLA is also confident of overwhelming support of the backward sections.
Kaiser had in 2014 defeated Krishna Yadav of the RJD by margin of 76,023. During Bihar CM Nitish Kumar’s rally in Khagaria, absence of attendees and participants did create insecurity in the NDA camp which happened due to bad coordination within the district leadership of the LJP-JDU-BJP.
But this doesn’t demotivate supporters of NDA on ground reiterates a local leader JDU leader .
Mukesh Sahani is heavily banking on Mahagathbandhan’s Muslim-Yadav, Nishad, Koeri and Musahar vote bank whereas Kaiser is fighting tough to keep intact the Minority and Upper caste vote on Modi- Nitish plank of development.
This seat has never been a bastion to any political party as such but LJP boss hails from Shaharbanni village under Alouli (SC) assembly segment of Khagaria parliamentary constituency. Paswan was first elected to the state assembly in 1969 byelection from Alouli (reserved) constituency later his brother Pashupati Kumar Paras represented the assembly seat in 1977.
Issues and Crisis in Khagaria:
Khagaria, geographically shares a controversial history which continues to be a challenge in contemporary times as it is river locked region.
In deep rural areas of it lies the anger among the villagers who claim to be least beneficiaries of choosing their representative as they are not aware how the person looks like or who is he/she?
Sitting MP’s absence has poured unimaginable anger among the rural voters whose result is- nearly 30,000 people of 150 villages have decided to boycott the election on 23rd April who particularly are Musahars.
Renowned social activist working precisely for Musahar community’s emancipation, Sanjeev Dom in conversation with Newsd said, This festival of democracy matter nothing for Musahars as they have been standing on the other side of fence where development, road, bridge, education, hospital do not exist. So collectively we have decided to boycott election.
Kodra village which falls under Alouli assembly segment is one place which doesn’t have at least peepa pull (bamboo-wooden bridge) to cross river for entering village. Boat is used for transporting people from one side to the other.
Employment has also taken a back seat. According to Vakil Yadav local resident of Khagaria- sitting MP and the government have ignored creating employment for youth of Khagaria. Example is Pristine Mega Food Park. It was not completed at the time of inauguration by hands of Union minister of food processing Harsimrat Kaur Badal. Last year she walked out in a huff because the facility wasn’t complete.
The verdict of people goes anyway but the development of basic facilities has proven to be a weak in front of identity politics, says loudly the present status of Khagaria.
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