Samastipur (Bihar): A dusty town located 80 km north-east of Patna, Samastipur was in the news in January when the Bharat Ratna was conferred on two-time former Bihar chief minister Karpoori Thakur who was born here.
As it gears up for the Lok Sabha voting 13 May, the constituency is again generating curiosity as conflicting interests of Janata Dal (United) ministers play out, with the Congress fielding Sunny Hazari and the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) backing Shambhavi Kunal Choudhary.
A former Samastipur MP, JD(U) minister Maheshwar Hazari is a cousin of LJP founder late Ram Vilas Paswan, whose son Chirag Paswan now heads the LJP(RV). Hazari is canvassing — often under the cover of darkness at night — for his son Sunny in villages dominated by the Paswans, members of his caste, several JD(U) leaders confirmed to ThePrint.
Shambhavi, on the other hand, is the daughter of another JD(U) minister Ashok Choudhary.
While Choudhary is Bihar’s rural works department minister, Hazari holds the portfolio of information & public relations department.
It is this subplot that is making the people sit up in this otherwise sleepy town in Bihar with the familiar sights of stray cattle chewing polythene bags out of piles of garbage dumped on roadsides, open drains, congested roads as well as stories of poverty, unemployment, and farm distress.
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‘Outsider’ tag on Shambhavi
A graduate from Lady Shri Ram College and postgraduate from the Delhi School of Economics, Shambhavi has been facing trouble right from the word go as several LJP(RV) leaders resigned following her candidature.
Another often-repeated charge against Shambhavi is that she is a ‘helicopter (allusion to LJP (RV) party symbol)’ candidate — a euphemism for ‘outsider’.
One of her campaign managers tells ThePrint that Sambhavi shifted “permanently” to Samastipur as soon as her candidature was announced and that she has been visiting villages every day.
Chirag Paswan had a key role in bringing down the JD(U)’s tally from 71 assembly seats in 2015 to 43 seats in 2020. JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar was then instrumental in splitting the LJP into two factions led by Chirag Paswan and his uncle Pashupati Paras in 2021.
While Chirag is a part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the bitterness between the LJP and the JD(U) workers on the ground hasn’t gone away. Making it more complex, Sambhavi has to deal with the anti-incumbency against the sitting MP from Paras-led faction, Prince Raj.
JD(U)’s Maheshwar Hazari is said to have played a crucial role in the LJP split in 2021. Chirag, JD(U) leaders say, has not forgiven him for this. “The Congress candidate’s father always worked against my father and also divided my family,” Chirag had said, after the Congress declared the candidature of Sunny Hazari.
“We know how he orchestrated a split in the family and the party. We have videos available of him present in the meeting where everything was planned. Hazari approached me to seek a (poll) ticket, but I could not muster the courage to propose that to Chiragji,” says an LJP (RV) functionary.
ThePrint reached out to Maheshwar Hazari on mobile, but he didn’t respond. One of his staff said that he was “extremely busy” and, therefore, won’t be able to meet or talk.
JD(U) leaders in Samastipur and Patna concede that due to Hazari’s personal interest in his son’s campaign, the battle of Samastipur is increasingly becoming a JD(U) vs JD(U) battle where two senior leaders are indirectly taking on each other.
A JD(U) leader privy to developments says that Ashok Chaudhary reached out to Hazari to come along with him on the day of his daughter Shambhavi’s nomination. Hazari, the JD(U) leader adds, made an excuse and skipped the event.
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Sentiment on ground
As for Shambhavi, one of the youngest candidates in Bihar, the ‘Modi factor’ may come to her aid despite the tag of ‘outsider’ in this reserved constituency.
Moreover, JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar has deployed his trusted lieutenants such as Karpoori Thakur’s son and Rajya Sabha MP Ram Nath Thakur to work on a feedback mechanism for ensuring maximum support for Shambhavi.
“Once Shambhavi completes her visit to villages, we gather information about lack of response and dissatisfaction from people. Then, our senior leaders in the constituency plan to visit and reach out directly to them to listen to their complaints and calm their anger against the party,” a senior JD(U) leader tells ThePrint.
In Majhraiya village where the 25-year-old candidate stopped for her campaigning, 68-year-old Bindeshwar Paswan explains the reason for his support to the NDA — schemes like the Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana.
His arguments are seconded by 45-year-old Sita Devi and 60-year-old Jago Paswan who say that their unfamiliarity with Shambhavi will not matter much as they are voting for her to once again elect Modi as the PM.
A few kilometres away in Sarhila and Ranna villages, similar sentiments prevail. While none of the voters tells ThePrint of seeing or hearing about Shambhavi before, they say the election is all about Modi.
In Paswan-majority Narainpur Dariah, where Hazari is said to have canvassed for his son Sunny under the cover of night, the sentiment is overwhelmingly in the NDA’s favour as well.
75-year-old Ram Balak Paswan says that the village has approximately 1,700 votes and a majority of them identify Chirag Paswan as the inheritor of his father’s legacy.
“When he (Ram Vilas Paswan) was the communications minister, he brought in mobile phones and as the railways minister, he revamped railways. His politics was always pro-poor and only Chirag can take his legacy forward. He is a young and dynamic leader who can work for us,” 65-year-old Ram Sundar Paswan tells ThePrint.
Criticising Nitish’s statement on birth control given in the Bihar assembly last year, 69-year-old Shiv Nandan Paswan says that the JD(U) chief should be dropped as the Bihar CM at the earliest and that Chirag should be given a chance to show his mettle.
All three of them confirm that Hazari made a late-night visit to their village, but assert Chirag will get their support and so will Shambhavi.
Samastipur has the knack of making it big — be it the Bharat Ratna announcement recently, or in 1975, or in 1990. The town was rocked in 1975 when then railway minister Lalit Narayan Mishra was killed in a bomb blast. Fifteen years on, then Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad had arrested BJP leader L.K. Advani and stopped his Ram Rath Yatra.
Come 4 June, when the poll results will be out, a shake up may be in the offing in this constituency synonymous with socialist icon Karpoori Thakur, who, ironically, had a disdain for nepotism.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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