In 2019 Lok Sabha election, Congress' Tariq Anwar was pitted against Dulal Chandra Goswami of the Janata Dal (United). The constituency went to polls in the second phase of the general elections on April 18.
Election Result 2019: Congress's Tariq Anwar lost to JD(U)'s Dulal Chandra Goswami by 57,203 votes.
DULAL CHANDRA GOSWAMI - Janata Dal (United) - 559423 (50.05%), TARIQ ANWAR (Congress) - 502220 (44.93%)
Constituency profile
One of the 40 parliamentary constituencies in Bihar, Katihar Lok Sabha constituency is part of Bihar's Katihar district in Seemanchal region. The district is one of the least developed districts in not only Bihar but in the country.
Katihar was one the very few Lok Sabha seats in Hindi belt which were not won by the BJP in 2014 Narendra Modi wave. Tariq Anwar of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) won from here by defeating BJP's Nikhil Kumar Choudhary, a three-time MP and a regional satrap, by nearly 1.15 lakh votes.
Anwar quit the NCP and Lok Sabha membership in September last year and joined the Congress a month later. A former president of Congress' Bihar unit, Anwar formed the NCP in the late 1990s along with Pawar and the late P A Sangma, opposing Sonia Gandhi taking over as AICC president on grounds of her foreign origin. The party later allied with the Congress at the national level and also in Maharashtra.
While Anwar won from here twice in 1996 and 1998, Nikhil Kumar Choudhary of the BJP won the next three consecutive elections.
Katihar Lok Sabha constituency comprises six legislative assembly segments: Katihar, Kadwa, Balrampur, Pranpur, Manihari and Barari.
Lok Sabha Elections 2019: State Profile
The contest in Bihar is two-way in most seats with NDA pitted against Mahagathbandhan. While Janata Dal (United) is part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) which comprises of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), the Bihar Mahagathbandhan comprises Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Congress, Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP), Hindustan Awam Morcha (HAM) and Vikasshil Insan Party (VIP).
The Congress got nine constituencies as per the seat-sharing arrangements, while the RJD has 20 out of which it has forgone Ara in favour of the CPI(ML), which has returned the favour by announcing that the ultra-Left outfit would not field its candidate from Pataliputra, which would be contested by Lalu Prasad's eldest daughter Misa Bharti.
Besides, Upendra Kushwaha's RLSP is contesting five seats and Jitan Ram Manjhis HAM is fighting three. The VIP, founded and headed by Bollywood set designer-turned-politician Mukesh Sahni, has got three seats out of the 40 in Bihar.
