Bihar: Chirag Paswan offers prayers at Baba Yogeshwar Nath Dham Temple in Danapur

Patna (Bihar) [India], May 20 (ANI): Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) chief and candidate from Hajipur Lok Sabha seat Chirag Paswan and his mother Reena Paswan offered prayers at Baba Yogeshwar Nath Dham Temple in Bihar's Danapur amid the fifth phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha elections on Monday.
Chirag Paswan is contesting from Hajipur constituency. He is pitted against Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) candidate Shiv Chandra Ram.
Hajipur, a seat reserved for Scheduled Castes, is considered to be the bastion of Ram Vilas Paswan. He won the seat eight times from 1977 to 2014, losing only twice in 1984 and 2009.
"Whenever it is an important day, I come to seek blessings of Mahadev. I am his devotee...Whatever I am today is all due to his blessings...All that I have has been given by Him. There was a time when everything was snatched away from me. I would be greedy if I would want anything more after that. Whatever I got is enough," Paswan told ANI.
Meanwhile, Union Minister and BJP candidate from Ujiarpur Lok Sabha seat Nityanand Rai cast his vote in Bihar today and said NDA will win all 40 seats in Bihar.
After casting his votes, Nityanand Rai said, "I have cast my vote. I appeal to people to vote. NDA will win all 40 seats in Bihar. INDI alliance will not get even a single seat in Bihar... At his seat, Chirag Paswan will win with a margin of over 5 lakhs."
The 40 seats in Bihar are undergoing polls in all seven phases. In the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha elections 2024, voting in five constituencies-Sitamarhi, Madhubani, Muzaffarpur, Saran, and Hajipur is underway.
The fifth phase of polling for Lok Sabha polls saw a voter turnout of 23.66 per cent till 11 am, the Election Commission (ECI) said on Monday. While Bihar recorded a 21.11 per cent voter turnout, Jammu and Kashmir recorded 21.37 per cent, Jharkhand 26.18 per cent, Ladakh 27.87 per cent, Maharashtra 15.93 per cent Odisha 21.07 per cent and West Bengal 32.70 per cent, the poll body said.
In 2019, BJP-led NDA swept the state by winning 39 out of 40 seats, while Congress won just one seat. RJD, a formidable force in the state, failed to open its account.
LJP candidate and Chirag Paswan's uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras emerged victorious in the 2019 elections, securing the seat for the first time and defeating RJD's Shiv Chandra Ram with a margin of 2,05,449 votes.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan won the seat for the eighth time. He polled 4,55,652 votes, with a vote share of 50.31 per cent. Congress candidate Sanjeev Prasad Toni got 2,30,152 votes (25.41 per cent) and was the runner-up.
Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance), the opposition coalition in Bihar, including Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Congress, and Left parties, is contesting 26 out of the state's 40 Lok Sabha seats, while Congress is contesting nine seats.
As part of the NDA, the BJP and JD (U) will contest for 17 and 16 seats, respectively. Chirag Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) will contest five seats, and Jitan Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) and the Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) will contest one seat each.
The counting of votes will be held on June 4. (ANI)