Pappu Yadav wins from Madhepura

Controversial former MP Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav today won the by-election from Madhepura parliamentary constituency by a huge margin of more than two lakh votes to raise the RJD’s tally in the Lok Sabha to 24.

Pappu Yadav, who recently switched over to the RJD to contest the Lok Sabha by-election after parting company with Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party, secured 3,65,948 votes. His rival, former Member of Parliament R.P. Yadav, pocketed 1,57,088 votes. The remaining seven candidates forfeited their deposits.

Railway Minister and RJD president Laloo Prasad Yadav, who had won from both Madhepura and Chapra, had decided to retain the latter, necessitating the bypoll. Pappu Yadav, who is lodged in the high-security Beur jail in Patna in connection with CPI(M) MLA Ajit Sarkar’s murder case, had lost the last Lok Sabha elections from Purnea to the BJP on an LJP ticket.