Subhashini Raj Rao is the daughter of Loktantrik Janata Dal leader and former JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav. She joined the Congress just ahead of the Assembly polls. The Congress has fielded her from Bihariganj assembly seat under the Madhepura Lok Sabha seat -- a seat represented by Sharad Yadav four times.
Sharad Yadav, a veteran socialist leader, has represented Madhepura in Parliament four times and has also lost from there many times, including in the last two Lok Sabha elections.
Rao jumped into the electoral battle to protect her father's political legacy. The Bihariganj seat is going to polls in the third phase today.
BIHAR ASSEMBLY ELECTION 2020 FULL COVERAGE
Sharad Yadav is a native of Madhya Pradesh. But he contested Lok Sabha elections from Madhepura as a mark of respect to BP Mandal. He was once Nitish Kumar's close aide, but quit the JD(U) after 2017 when Nitish dissolved the grand alliance and sided with the BJP. Sharad Yadav along with RJD president Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar had played a key role in the Mandal movement, paving the way for implementation of the jobs quota recommendations in 1990.
His daughter's election posters in the constituency introduced her as Subhashini ‘Sharad Yadav’. During campaigns, she said that Madhepura has been her father's karmabhoomi and sought the public support to fulfil the dreams of her father.
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Married to a Congress family of Haryana, Subhashini in her maiden electoral plunge is pitted against two time JD(U) MLA Niranjan Mehta, LJP candidate Vijay Kumar Singh and Prabhash Kumar of Janadhikar Party (JAP).
Though Yadavs form a bulk of the electors in Bihariganj, there is a significant presence of OBCs and Extremely Backward Castes who hold the key.
