Patna: On Monday, Munni Rajak, a Dalit washerwoman in her mid-40s, received a certificate from the returning officer confirming her place in the Vidhan Parishad — the Bihar legislature’s 75-member upper house — where she will sit as a legislator of the opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD).
Speaking to ThePrint, she said “I still cannot believe that I have become a legislator. In the last week of May, leaders of my party (RJD) came to my house in Bakhtiyarpur searching for me, saying that Saheb (party supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav) was looking for me. When I went, I was taken to a room in which (Lalu’s wife and former Bihar CM) Rabri Devi, (Lalu’s eldest son) Teju (Tej Pratap Yadav) bhaiya, and other members of the family were present.
“When Lalu ji told me that he had decided to make me an MLC, I was speechless for a few minutes before thanking them. Lalu ji and Rabri Devi have been like my parents,” she said.
“I have been a dhoban (washerwoman) for the past 30 years. I was a child labourer and my parents were also dhobis,” she added.
In her new role, the mother-of-three announced that she would raise questions on public issues such as unemployment and price hikes of essential items. “I am a dhobi by caste and profession. I will clean the negative thoughts of the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) inside the House,” she said.
Rajak’s election affidavit shows that she has movable and immovable property worth Rs 28 lakh.
The ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) was quick to criticise the RJD’s move.
“We welcome her selection. But the fact remains that Munni Rajak will just be a face. The funds allotted to her as an MLC will be used by the family,” BJP MLC Nawal Kishor Yadav told ThePrint, adding that the RJD had sidelined Shyam Rajak, who, he claimed, was a better-known face of the Rajak community.
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Change in candidate selection?
In these Vidhan Parishad elections, Bihar’s political parties appear to have favoured grassroots workers, in contrast to the usual practice — all MLCs elected under the panchayat quota earlier this year were crorepatis.
All seven candidates elected unopposed Monday — Ashok Kumar Pandey, Munni Rajak, Kari Suhail (RJD), Ravindra Prasad Singh, Afaq Ahmad Khan (Janata Dal-United) and Hari Sahni and Anil Sharma (BJP) — are known to have started from the bottom of their parties’ hierarchies.
As for Rajak, she has been an active member of the RJD for more than a decade.
“She has been a participant in every dharna and protest the party has organised for the past 15 years. On 20 May when the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) raided Laluji’s houses, she was on a dharna outside 10 Circular Road (Rabri Devi’s Patna residence),” RJD MLC Sunil Singh told ThePrint, insisting that Rajak’s elevation was a signal to the masses that Lalu still stood by them.
According to party sources, Rajak first came to the notice of RJD’s first family by sheer luck, when Lalu spotted her singing a song from a stage against the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government and in favour of the RJD in Bakhtiyarpur.
“But it must be the image of Munni Rajak televised by local Jharkhand channels that must have moved Lalu. She had reached Ranchi to meet Laluji, who was then under judicial custody and undergoing treatment at the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences. She wanted to meet Laluji but authorities refused her entry. She was shown wailing, beating her chest and shouting that Laluji had been framed,” recalled an RJD leader, referring to an incident in 2019.
Lalu’s elder son Tej Pratap Yadav also hailed the selection of Rajak as giving a voice to the oppressed.
With as many as 22 sub-castes, the Scheduled Castes (SCs) account for about 16 per cent of the total electorate in Bihar.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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