Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) women’s wing president in Bihar, Ritu Jaiswal, is contesting the assembly elections from Parihar as an Independent candidate against the BJP’s incumbent Gayatri Devi and RJD’s Smita Purve Gupta.
According to the Election Commission of India (ECI), BJP’s Gayatri Devi is leading by 16,751 votes. Jaiswal is trailing.
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Who is Ritu Jaiswal?
Jaiswal’s decision to contest as an Independent came after the RJD gave the Parihar ticket to her detractor.
While announcing her move in a Facebook post, Jaiswal expressed anguish over the RJD’s decision to field Smita Purve Gupta, daughter-in-law of former party president Ramchandra Purve. She blamed Purve for her defeat in the same seat in the 2020 assembly polls.
Jaiswal is married to a former civil servant, Arun Kumar, who retired from his office to become the Mukhiya of the Singjvahini Panchayat of Sitamarhi, a position previously held by his wife, Ritu.
Jaiswal had also contested the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from the Sheohar constituency. However, she lost the battle to JD(U)’s Lovely Anand by a margin of less than 30,000 votes.
She also served as the RJD state spokesperson from 2021 to 2023. Ritu Jaiswal is also widely known for her social work, especially in areas focusing on women’s rights, rural development and sustainable livelihood programmes.
Fight against two opponents
Ritu Jaiswal is fighting on the Parihar seat against two opponents: BJP’s Gayatri Devi and RJD’s Smita Purve Gupta.
Born on January 1, 1964, Gayatri Devi is the wife of former BJP MLA Ram Naresh Yadav, who was convicted and imprisoned for 10 years in a case related to a firing at the Sitamarhi collectorate.
Devi entered politics in 1990 and has since held various positions within the BJP’s women’s wing in Sitamarhi. She has won from Sitamarhi in the Bihar assembly polls twice, in 2015 and 2020. Gayatri Devi is contesting the elections from the constituency for a third consecutive term.
Smita Purve Gupta, meanwhile, is Jaiswal’s colleague in the Rashtriya Janata Dal. She is the daughter-in-law of Ramchandra Purve, a former state unit chief of RJD. Smita Purve is also a social activist.
The Parihar assembly constituency falls under the Sitamarhi Lok Sabha constituency in the East Champaran district. Parihar has been a BJP stronghold since 2010.
According to the 2020 elections, there were 3.02 lakh voters, of which 1.59 lakh were men and 1.43 lakh were women. The constituency had 444 polling stations.
What happened in the previous elections?
BJP’s Gayatri Devi defeated RJD’s Ritu Kumar Jaiswal in the 2020 assembly elections by a margin of just 1,569 votes. She bagged 73,420 votes, while Jaiswal bagged 71,851 votes.
In 2015 as well, BJP leader Gayatri Devi emerged victorious against RJD candidate Ramchandra Purve, with the former winning 66,388 votes and the latter securing 62,371 votes.
In the very first assembly poll of Parihar, in 2010, BJP’s Ram Naresh PR Yadav won the seat with 32,987 votes, defeating RJD’s Ramchandra Purve by a margin of 4,218 votes.
For the elections, the RJD has named 143 candidates, the Congress 61, the CPI nine and the CPI(M) has named four candidates. Meanwhile, the CPI(M-L)L has fielded 20 candidates, and the VIP has named 15 candidates.
On the other hand, the National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) seat sharing is such that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal (United) or JD(U) are fighting on 101 seats each, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) or LJP(RV) 29 seats, and the Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) or HAM(S) and the Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) are contesting on six seats each.
