Bihar Assembly Election 2020: 5 players who hold the cards to next Chief Minister

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul-Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi will also try his luck in Bihar elections. Owaisi is eyeing the Muslim vote bank. The population of Muslims in Bihar is 16.9 percent of the total population. Be it the 2014 Lok Sabha elections or the 2019 elections. On both occasions, the Muslim vote was divided between the RJD, Congress, and JDU.

Muslims also expressed confidence in Ram Vilas Paswan's party LJP. By winning the by-elections in October 2019, AIMIM entered the politics of Bihar when Kamarul Hoda from Kishanganj defeated BJP's, Sweety Singh. AIMIM's entry in Bihar's politics is likely to cause major damage to RJD and Congress.

Kushwaha was with the NDA in the 2014 general elections. He won the election from Karakat seat and became a minister in the Modi government. In December 2018, there was a rift over seat-sharing. His party was out of the NDA before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Kushwaha joined the RJD-led grand alliance. The Congress, RLSP, Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular), and Vikasthi Insan Party (VIP) were with the RJD in the Grand Alliance. Upendra Kushwaha contested on two seats in the 2019 Lok sabha election. He lost both the seats. Upendra Kushwaha comes from the Koiri caste. Koiri is 8 percent of the total population of Bihar? With 8 percent share Kushwaha has the competence to make chief minister whichever alliance he supports. 

Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav, the head of the Jan Adhikar Party, has been an MP five times. He was elected MP in 1991, 1996, 1999, 2004, and 2014. But in the year 2019, he had to face defeat. Earlier, in the 2015 Bihar assembly elections, his party contested 40 seats. But could not win even a single seat. His party then got only 2 percent votes. Even in this election, his party can fight alone. Because Pappu Yadav is neither close to the NDA nor the Grand Alliance.

He has been holding his turf in the assembly since 1980 by winning elections continuously. Manjhi hails from the scheduled caste. He has also been a Minister of Scheduled Castes and Tribes in the Nitish government. Manjhi first came into the limelight after the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Then Nitish Kumar resigned from the post of Chief Minister after the defeat in the 2014 elections. Jitan Ram Manjhi was made the Chief Minister of Bihar. However, later when Nitish asked him to step down, he refused. In February 2015, Manjhi could not prove a majority in the floor test and had to step down.

Manjhi formed the HAM Party in 2015. In 2018, he went to the Grand Alliance. The party could not win a single seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Last month, he left the Grand Alliance and joined the NDA.

Mukesh Sahani, who has worked as a set designer in Bollywood, has now become a well-known name in Bihar politics. Sahani is from Supaul village in Darbhanga district. He left the village and fled to Mumbai. Made a name and identity there. He made the set of the famous film Devdas. He returned to Bihar in 2014. In the then Lok Sabha elections, he campaigned for the BJP. He was also seen campaigning for BJP in the 2015 Bihar assembly elections. Before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, he formed his party. Named the Vikasheel Insan Party (VIP). The party contested 3 seats but there was no victory anywhere. Sahani, popularly known as 'Mallah ka beta', comes from the Nishad caste.