Bhojpuri super star Khesari Lal Yadav got a huge jolt on Friday when his bid to make a political entry failed miserably in the Bihar Assembly Elections. Initial trends showed that he is behind the NDA candidate, Chhoti Kumari, who is leading in the constituency by over 3,000 votes after three rounds of vote counting.
The Chhapra Assembly seat, a RJD stronghold, was considered one of the high-profile seats in the district, considering the presence of the Bhojpuri star. The BJP, which won the seat last time, pulled a trick by fielding Chhoti Kumari, a newcomer, against Khesari Lal.
Chhoti Kumar, from the Vaishya community, has served as the District Council President, and her husband, Dharmendra Sah, is the BJP's District General Secretary. From 1965 to 2014, only Rajput or Yadav candidates have won this seat. However, in the 2014 assembly election by-election, RJD's Randhir Kumar Singh won for the first time. Subsequently, a non-Yadav, non-Rajput candidate, Dr. CN Gupta, won for the first time in the 2015 Bihar Assembly elections on a BJP ticket.
Ever since his candidature, Khesari Lal had had frequent verbal altercations with BJP star campaigners and industry mates Pawan Singh and Ravi Kishan, which consistently kept him in the headlines.
Khesari also courted controversy after his remarks on the Ram Mandir irked a certain section of society. “Will I become a teacher, professor, or officer after studying at the Ram Temple? No. The Ram Temple is a matter of faith; that's a different matter. But work must be done for education. The country runs on education," Khesari said during the campaign.
However, his remarks irked the saint community, which called him mentally ill. The saints had said that if Khesari Lal is not able to respect the dignity of Lord Ram, then he should retire from politics. Not only this, another Bhojpuri star, Nirahua, also targeted him and accused him of promoting appeasement politics.
