Lok Sabha Elections 2024 | Ajeet Sharma vs. Ajay Kumar Mandal in a face-off

Leader of the JD(U) and current MP Ajay Kumar Mandal is running for reelection from his native Bhagalpur. Mandal, a three-time MLA who served two terms in Nathnagar and one term in Kahalgaon, rode the Modi wave to the Lok Sabha in 2019 and beat RJD challenger Bulo Mandal by more than 2.75 lakh votes. But in 2024, the Congress’s Ajeet Sharma—a Bhagalpur MLA at the moment—will take on the non-matriculated MP.

It’s interesting to note that Bulo Mandal, who Ajay beat in 2019, has jumped on Nitish’s bandwagon after the RJD refused to give him a ticket and the Congress was given the seat. In an attempt to unseat Congressman Ajeet, who is running in the parliamentary election from Bhagalpur, a previous Congress stronghold where former federal minister and Bihar chief minister Bhagwat Jha Azad won seven times, the Mandals have now banded together.

Ajeet Sharma, a formidable Congress contender from the upper caste Bhumihar clan, is now serving as an MLA in Bhagalpur and is running as a Mahagatbandhan candidate in the Lok Sabha elections for the first time. Sharma, who previously led the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) in the Bihar Assembly and won three Assembly elections, is counting on his work as a legislator in addition to drawing attention because of his two famous daughters, Neha and Aisha Sharma, who are models who are now Bollywood actors. Neha, who costarred with John Abraham in Satyamev Jayate, was a candidate for the Congress ticket as well, but her father was ultimately selected as the nominee due to Neha’s demanding schedule in Hollywood. Sharma is counting on the support of Muslims and Yadavs, the RJD’s main voting base, to swing the election in his direction more than the upper caste votes he already has.