Patna: Elections in Bihar are not just being fought on caste, community, development, national security, corruption and reservation.
A host of veteran politicians are attempting to play with the emotions of voters by either declaring that these Lok Sabha polls are their ‘last electoral battle’ or evoking nostalgia by emphasising their ties with certain constituencies.
Among those who were at the forefront of such campaigning was the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) president Ram Vilas Paswan. The LJP chief is synonymous with the Hajipur Lok Sabha constituency — he is a nine-time MP from here, first contesting in 1977.
In these Lok Sabha polls, however, Paswan stayed away and fielded his younger brother Pashupati Kumar Paras from Hajipur. The constituency voted on 6 May but in the run-up to polling day, Paswan campaigned for his brother by recalling his over 40-year association with Hajipur.
“Hajipur is like my mother. You elected me when I was young. Today I have become old and have opted out of elections due to health reasons,” Paswan told a gathering in the constituency during a rally on 12 April. “But I will continue to work for the development of Hajipur and I will be there when any person from Hajipur comes to seek help.”
The LJP chief’s attempts to strike an emotional chord with voters had come amid murmurs that Paras was not all that well-liked in the constituency.
“There is nothing wrong with Paras except that it is a tall order to fill the shoes of Ram Vilasji,” remarked a senior LJP leader.
Paswan has contested from Hajipur Lok Sabha seat on 11 occasions — losing only in 1984 and 2009. The first time he won in 1977, he created a record after defeating his rival by over 4.5 lakh votes. “Over the last 42 years, Hajipur has become synonymous with Ram Vilas Paswan,” said LJP spokesperson Mohammad Ashraf. “Every mega project in the area has been brought by Paswanji and he enjoys support from every section.”
LJP leaders, on the condition of anonymity, also said that while Paswan personally knew at least half a dozen people in every village falling in the constituency, Paras has never bothered to meet voters except during elections.
“Paras’ name evoked hostility initially. It was due to the emotional speech of Paswanji that the hostility was contained,” another LJP leader said. How much, however, will now be clear on 23 May, the day of the results.
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Not the only one
Paswan, however, isn’t the only one campaigning on emotions.
On 10 April, two days before polling began for these Lok Sabha elections, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad, currently in judicial custody in Ranchi, released a two-page emotional letter addressed to “Pyare Bihar Vasiyo (My beloved Bihar brethren)”.
“Sitting alone in a Ranchi hospital, I am wondering whether disruptive forces have got me imprisoned. I am imprisoned, but my thoughts aren’t,” he wrote, before urging voters of Bihar to vote out Modi while touching on subjects such as reservation and warning that if Modi wins, the “status of the downtrodden in society will go back 35 years”.
The contents of Lalu’s letter is being repeated in the public meetings of Tejashwi Yadav, Rabri Devi and Misa Bharati. “It is a message aimed at consolidating RJD supporters by repeating the charge that he was in jail due to a conspiracy,” an RJD MLA said.
Opposition leaders have, however, dubbed Lalu’s letter as “emotional blackmail”.
“Everybody knows that Lalu Prasad is in jail because he was convicted in fodder scam cases,” said senior BJP leader and Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi. “The cases were registered against him when we were not in power. It is an attempt to gain sympathy.”
Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh, a five-time BJP MP from Purvi Champaran, has been campaigning by telling voters that these are his last Lok Sabha polls. The constituency votes on 12 May.
“The union minister is presently around 70 years old and knows that by the next elections, he will be touching the 75-age barrier, after which the party will deny ticket,” said a senior Bihar BJP leader. “But he has had a long tenure as MP from his constituency and knows that the announcement will send an emotional message to his voters.”
Veteran RJD leader and former Union minister, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, is contesting from the Vaishali Parliamentary constituency, the seat he won five consecutive times until he was defeated in 2014. Singh too has declared that these will be his last Lok Sabha polls. His constituency also votes on 12 May.
“I have had a long innings and now I think I should give space to the younger generation in my party,” Singh, a former mathematics professor, told ThePrint. After his defeat in 2014, Singh has spent a considerable amount of time in his constituency but the RJD’s opposition to reservation to poor upper castes has put him on a sticky wicket. His own caste of Rajputs are apparently annoyed with him. “Raghuvansh babu needs the sympathy of his own caste to win. He has a reputation of being an honest politician but that is not enough,” conceded an RJD MLA.
This is not the first time electoral battles have been fought on emotional issues in Bihar. In 2014, the late Mohammed Taslimuddin, called Chacha Taslim by even his political adversaries, contested the Araria Parliamentary seat by declaring it was his last elections and appealing to voters to give him a farewell vote. They obliged — Taslimuddin won by nearly 1.5 lakh votes. Taslimuddin, however, passed away in 2017 but in the resultant bypoll, his son, Sarfraz Alam, was elected as MP.
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