Shreyasi Singh is contesting elections from Jamui Vidhan Sabha seat.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded Commonwealth Games shooter Shreyasi Singh from Jamui assembly seat to take on Vijay Prakash Yadav of RJD. A winner of gold medal in shooting, Singh joined BJP just weeks before assembly polls.
In 2018, Shreyasi won a gold medal in Shooting at Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia.
Jamui is going to polls in the first phase on Wednesday.
The Jamui assembly seat is a part of LJP chief Chirag Paswan’s Lok Sabha constituency. The seat has become a high profile because of the the presence of an international sports personality. A total of 14 candidates are trying their luck. The battle is, however, primarily between Shreyasi Singh, Vijay Prakash Yadav, and BJP rebel candidate Ajay Pratap, who is contesting on RLSP ticket.
Shreyasi’s challenger in Jamui is sitting legislator from RJD, Vijay Prakash Yadav. The RJD leader had won this seat in 2015. But before that, this seat was with JDU of Nitish Kumar. The sitting MLA, whose elder brother Jaiprakash Narayan Yadav is a former Union minister and a close aide of party chief Lalu Yadav. He even served as a minister in the Grand Alliance government in 2015.
Shreyasi Singh, 27, may be a sportsperson and a political greenhorn, but comes from a political background since her late father Digvijay Singh was a Union Minister and her mother Putul Singh has been a parliamentarian.
According to the details given to the Election Commission, Shreyasi Singh has movable assets worth Rs 1.04 crore and immovable assets worth 3.35 crore.
A graduate of Delhi University's Hansraj College, Shreyasi Singh during her campaign said that she wants to become the face of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "Aatmanirbhar" (self-reliant) India initiative and work towards creating job opportunities in Bihar.
Shreyasi Singh also has the support of Chirag Paswan whose LJP has not fielded a candidate for the seat.
Rajputs and Yadavs are almost equal in number in Jamui Vidhan Sabha that has an electorate of over 2.91 lakh. While Shreyasi Singh is a Rajput, RJD's Vijay Prakash is a Yadav. The constituency also has significant population of Muslims, Dalits, including Paswans, OBCs, EBCs, Bhumihars, and Brahmins.
