Begusarai Lok Sabha constituency: All you need to know about the parliamentary seat

Begusarai is one of the 40 Lok Sabha constituencies of Bihar. In the 2014 election, Bharatiya Janata Party's Bhola Singh won the seat defeating Rashtriya Janata Dal's Tanveer Hassan with a margin of 58335 votes. Singh had won the seat for the BJP in the last general election. In October 2018, 82-year-old Singh died in Delhi's Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital.

Singh was an eight-time lawmaker and also a minister in the Bihar government. Singh was elected from the Nawada Lok Sabha seat in 2009 while in 2014 he was won from Begusarai. "He will be remembered for his outstanding service to society and efforts towards the development of Bihar," Prime Minister Narendra Modi had tweeted on his demise.

CPI candidate Rajendra Prasad Singh, who was also CPI state secretary then, had contested from Begusarai in 2014 in alliance with JD(U) and secured the third position.

For the 2019 polls, former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union president Kanhaiya Kumar is likely to contest from Begusarai constituency as a CPI candidate. He is likely to have the support of grand alliance partners RJD, Congress, NCP and Jitan Ram Manjhi's HAM(S). A resident of Barauni block in Begusarai district, Kumar's mother is an anganwadi worker and his father is a farmer.

The parliamentary seat is famous for its strong base of ancillary industries which are a major source of the revenue generated here, along with the small-scale industrial establishments which are a regular source of income for the district. However, Begusarai has been announced as one of the most backward regions in Bihar. It is heavily dependent on the funds that it receives from the government under the Backward Regions Grant Fund Programme (BRGFP).

Since the 2009 Lok Sabha election, the Begusarai parliamentary constituency comprises of seven Vidhan Sabha segments, namely - Cheria Bariarpur, Bachhwara, Teghra, Matihani, Sahebpur Kamal, Begusarai and Bakhri.

In 2014, Bihar witnessed an overall turnout of 56.28 per cent in the 2014 polls of which 57.66 per cent were female voters and 55.08 per cent were male voters. The seat saw a voter turnout of 60.60 per cent which included 64.16 per cent female and 57.49 per cent male voters.