Barachatti sees a showdown between experience & youth

Gaya: Among the 10 assembly segments of Gaya district, Barachatti is gearing up for a tough contest between the NDA and the Mahagathbandhan. While NDA’s Jyoti Devi (60) seeks a second consecutive term, RJD’s Tanushree Kumari (26), contesting her first election, enters the fray with a formidable political lineage behind her.Jyoti Devi, the ‘samdhan’ of Hindustani Awaam Morcha (Secular) founder Jitan Ram Manjhi, has represented Barachatti twice – in 2010 and 2020. Manjhi himself won from the constituency in the Oct 2005 Bihar assembly elections.Though Jyoti’s educational qualification is limited to the Intermediate level, she has been active in social work for many years. Her contributions in the field of agriculture have earned her recognition and felicitation from international social organisations.Tanushree, holding a bachelor’s degree in business administration, left her job in a real estate company to continue the political legacy of her family. Her maternal grandmother, Bhagwati Devi, who began her career as a stone-crushing labourer, went on to become a four-time MLA from Barachatti – winning in 1969 (Samyukta Socialist Party), 1977 (Janata Party), 1995 (Janata Dal) and 2000 (RJD) – and also represented the Gaya parliamentary seat in the 1996 general elections.

After Bhagwati’s death in 2003, Tanushree’s mother Samta Devi carried forward the family tradition by winning the Barachatti seat in 2015. In 2020, Samta narrowly lost to Jyoti Devi by 6,318 votes. Tanushree’s maternal uncle Vijay Kumar Manjhi also won the Barachatti seat in the Feb 2005 assembly polls, defeating Jitan Ram Manjhi.Altogether, 11 candidates are contesting this time, including G S Ramchandra Das of the Bahujan Samaj Party and Shivnath Kumar Nirala of the Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party. The constituency has 3,09,040 electors, comprising 1,62,357 male and 1,46,682 female voters, who will cast their votes at 412 polling booths housed in 282 buildings on Tuesday.On Sunday, after a briefing by district magistrate-cum-district election officer Shashank Shubhankar on the Magadh University campus, polling personnel for the Barachatti constituency were dispatched to their respective booths.