#BiharPolls: more about Bodh Gaya constituency, the land of 'Buddha'

Bodh Gaya is a place of paramount importance for Buddhists in India and around the world. A reserved constituency for Schedule Caste candidates, Bodh Gaya has Shyam Deo Paswan of BJP as its incumbent MLA. The constituency will go to polls on 16 October in second phase of Bihar assembly election of 2015.

Constituency details

• Bodh Gaya has never been a stronghold of any particular political party in the past. In the 2010 election, Paswan won by a small margin of 11,213 votes.

• As per official data, there are 2,69,026 eligible voters in Bodh Gaya consisting of 1,40,500 male and 1,28,517 female voters.

• Former Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, who has formed a new party Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) which is a part of National Democratic Alliance (NDA), was elected as the MLA of the constituency in 2000 on the ticket of Rashtria Janata Dal (RJD).

• This year, a total of 15 candidates will be contesting for this seat with BJP fielding Shyam Deo Paswan as their candidate and RJD fielding Kumar Sarvajeet who was a runner-up in the 2010 election.

File Photo

Historical significance

• The place where Siddhartha Gautama attained enlightenment and became 'Buddha,' Bodh Gaya is a place of religious significance and is a site of pilgrimage for millions of Buddhists around the world, especially pilgrims from South East Asian countries like Thailand, China etc.

• It is one of the four main pilgrimage sites where important events pertaining to Buddha's life took place including places like Kushinagar, Lumbini and Sarnath.

• It is also home to the gigantic Mahabodhi Temple which houses the Bodhi Tree under which Buddha meditated for six years before achieving enlightenment. It is said that emperor Ashoka built the original Mahabodhi Temple when he visited Bodh Gaya after being inspired by the Buddhist faith.

Raquel Maria Carbonell Pagola/Getty Images

Place of tourist attraction

• In 2002, UNESCO declared the Mahabodhi Temple as a World Heritage Site and the place attracts tourists from all around the world.

• Not just pilgrims, Bodh Gaya also sees a huge influx of young backpackers and Buddhist scholars who visit the place to learn meditation and study the origins of Buddhism.

• To make it easier for the international tourists to reach the place, Gaya international airport was constructed which stands just 5 kms away from the temple complex and is the second busiest airport of Bihar.

• A total of 1,64,770 domestic and 2,25,668 foreign tourists visited the site in 2014 and the number can be significantly improved if better facilities are provided to tourists.

• On 7 July 2013, a series of ten bomb blasts took place inside the temple complex, injuring five people including two monks. That year, the world heritage site experienced a steep decline in the number of tourists which hit a low of 1,39,556 from 2,07,933 in 2012.

File Photo