Vikassheel Insaan Party chief Mukesh Sahani, who bargained hard with the opposition Grand Alliance to get 12 seats for his party and the Deputy Chief Ministerial post for himself, is sharing the reverses suffered by the Mahagathbandhan. His party, which won four seats in 2020, is trailing in all 12 seats.
The Opposition Mahagathbandhan is ahead in just 38 seats, while the NDA has crossed the 200-mark in the 243-seat assembly.
Sahani did not contest himself and withdrew his brother from the contest in favour of the candidate of Rashtriya Janata Dal. The BJP's Sujit Kumar is now leading from the constituency by over 7000-plus votes, leaving RJD's Afzal Ali far behind.
Sahani had practically strong-armed his way into the top tier of the Opposition in Bihar, leveraging his support within the Mallah, Sahani and Nishad communities that comprises 9 per cent of the voters in the state.
During his electoral debut in 2020, he had won four seats -- all of which had added to the NDA numbers.
The party came second in six, three of which it lost by margin of fewer than 7,000 votes. His total vote share was 1.52 per cent.
This time, so confident was he that he had dubbed himself the "son of mallah" and had differences with the Grand Alliance on the eve of the second phase of election that sparked reports of a major rift. Sahani had dismissed the reports, saying the news was "planted".
Sahani had started his career as a Bollywood set designer and later founded Mukesh Cineworld Pvt Ltd, that handled sets for films, TV shows, and events.
Later, he returned to his home state and started work to uplift his community.
His protests and growing stature in the mallah community caught the attention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who brought him into the BJP fold, where he quickly became a star campaigner.
He campaigned for the party during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and again in the 2015 Bihar Assembly polls. But after his demand for Scheduled Caste status for the Nishads went unmet, he launched the Vikasheel Insaan Party in 2018.
