Election in Pincodes: Battle for legacy, future plays out in stalwart regional leader’s borough
HT looks at some key constituencies across the country that encapsulate the issues shaping the ongoing Lok Sabha electoral contest
Across India and the globe, Nalanda is associated with Bihar’s ancient, and, unfortunately lost, glory. A mere 15km away from the district headquarters of Bihar Sharif are the ruins of Nalanda University, the renowned centre of learning that attracted scholars from all over the world between the fifth and 12th centuries. A short drive away is Rajgir, named as the abode of the kings, which served as the capital of the Magadha kingdom. Pawapuri, where Lord Mahavir, the founder of Jainism, is believed to have attained Nirvana, is also in the vicinity.
But all that is in the past.
Data from the 2019-21 National Family and Health Survey (NFHS) shows that Nalanda is poorer than 466 out of India’s 707 districts in terms of wealth. Once a beacon of higher education for the ancient world, the town now sees an annual exodus of young people dropping out of schools and colleges to migrate to other parts of the country for back-breaking manual work. The 2016-17 Economic Survey published by the Union government listed Nalanda-Delhi as one of the biggest export-import railway routes for migrant workers in the country.
But Nalanda’s importance stems neither from its ancient laurels nor migrant drudgery. It is at the heart of the social, economic, and ultimately political battle between two visions of Bihar because it encapsulates the philosophy of one of them – chief minister Nitish Kumar. It is in Nalanda that Kumar was born, cut his teeth in politics, learnt the pragmatism that makes him a master of realpolitik, held his fort even in the most difficult of times, and delivered (or, at the least, is perceived to have delivered) good governance.
It is in Nalanda that Kumar has attempted to showcase Bihar’s apparent renaissance from the proverbial jungle raj of the Lalu Yadav-Rabri Devi years. And it is in Nalanda where he faces possibly the greatest battle of his political career.
“This time, we are irritated with Saheb’s (Kumar’s) repeated political shifts. When we go to other states, people mock his frequent changing of sides. With old age, his slips of tongue while speaking makes more news than his politics,” said Kapildeo Kumar Singh, a 32-year-old graduate of a Sohdih village in Nalanda.
His reference is to the frequent jumps Kumar and his party have made, from the BJP-led NDA (of which they are now a part, again) to the RJD-led Maha Gathbandhan, and back.
Sohidh made a mark for itself in 2011 for sowing 160 acres of potatoes using natural fertilisers, among the many progressive farming initiatives that Nalanda saw due to a nudge from Kumar’s government.
For people such as Singh, the RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, Lalu Yadav’s son and once Kumar’s deputy, is the man.
Older people are more forgiving, though.
Fifty-two-year-old sharecropper Dayanand Prasad is still with Kumar.
“He has always changed his sides only for maintaining peace and harmony in society and the development of Bihar. I don’t know much about Modi ka pariwar (Modi’s family), but Nalanda definitely is still Nitish ka pariwar (Nitish’s family),” he said.
These two voices frame the challenge for Kumar, who has changed sides twice this term but maintained his grip on the CM’s chair, in one of the most fiercely fought parliamentary elections in the state in decades. At stake is not just his personal legacy but also the future of the state’s politics. Bihar is a key battleground state for both the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), and whether the former is able to maintain its grip on the state will come down to the image of one man around whom elections have revolved in Bihar for nearly two decades – Nitish Kumar.
Political history
Nalanda’s political history sketches the contours of Kumar’s personal journey. It was among the only two seats that the Janata Dal (United) or JD(U) won in 2014, when Kumar walked out of the NDA after opposing Narendra Modi’s candidature as PM. Even in the 2020 assembly elections, when it was part of the NDA, and was reduced to a lowly third position , it won five out of the seven assembly segments in Nalanda. This is also the constituency that sent Kumar’s mentor George Fernandes, a socialist leader from Mangaluru, to the Lok Sabha in 1996, 1998 and 1999 . Kumar himself won the seat in 2004, but resigned within a year to assume the CM’s post in 2005. JD(U) has held the Lok Sabha seat continuously since and Kumar’s confidante Kaushlendra Kumar is seeking his fourth consecutive term in 2024.
Nalanda has gained a lot because of its loyalty to Kumar. Fernandes served as the defence minister in both the 1998 and 1999 NDA governments. He sanctioned an ordnance factory and a Sainik School in the town during this period. Kumar served as the railway minister in the Vajpayee government in 1999. He announced a passenger carriage repair workshop to Harnuat, the assembly segment in Nalanda where his ancestral village of Kalyan Bigha is located. Express train routes terminating at Patna were extended till Nalanda under his watch. Rajgir’s tourism infrastructure was upgraded .
This created a loyal bloc of voters for Kumar, which coalesced around his Kurmi caste, and created a brand that was very different from the image of his principal rival, Lalu. “Nitish never cared for his personal benefits but his coalition partners have never let him work properly,” said Prasad.
He added that while people may complain, when it comes to the crunch, “they will finally vote for saheb”.
His confidence may be misplaced.
In Nagar Nausa block, villagers are sitting on a dharna (protest) against the dilapidated condition of the road connecting Lachhu Bigha More and Lohanda. “We always voted for JD(U), but saheb remained indifferent to our problems. This damaged road has affected the movement of 18 villages including Chaurasi, Akaid, Saidanpur, Raghunathpur, Mushari and Premnagar Barbigha. Since these villages are Dalit-dominated, nobody wants to bring them on the map,” said Pankaj Bharti, one of the agitators.
Local discontent over public works is not the only grouse. Dilip Kumar Singh, an advocate in Bihar Sharif court, sees a larger problem dilemma. “Nitish’s agenda of good governance and secularism is being overpowered here by the BJP’s slogans of Hindutva.”
Kumar broke the RJD’s M-Y (Muslim-Yadav) base by creating a coalition of extremes that consolidated upper castes, Dalits, Muslims and other backward castes under a single roof. “That is now under threat here,” the advocate added.
Awadhesh Kumar, a college teacher, says that the biggest problem the JD(U) faces in Nalanda is getting the traditional vote base of alliance partners – BJP, LJP and HAM (S) – transferred in its favour. Across the town, there are hardly any workers from the other parties canvassing for the JD(U) pick who is fighting a swirl of rumours about Kumar’s political future. “Dalits are in a catch-22 situation due to the Opposition’s allegations that the NDA will abolish quota. Upper caste voters appear disenchanted.”
While the JD (U) candidate is a Kurmi, like Kumar, INDIA’s nominee Sandeep Saurav, a sitting MLA of the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation or CPI-ML from Paliganj, is a Yadav. The caste-party combination could help the RJD overcome the usual animosity of smaller OBC groups and Dalits over Yadav dominance.
Forging a support base
Nalanda, where the number of electors is 2.1 million, has the maximum number of Kurmi voters (412,000), followed by 308,000 Yadavs, 190,000 Muslims and 160,000 Baniyas. The number of Paswan voters in this seat is 120,000, while Kushwahas have 100,000 members. As is obvious, a Kurmi candidate cannot win just with the votes of just his own caste.
Kumar started his political career with battles when he could not even take the votes of his own caste for granted. In May 1977, Kurmi landlords shot dead 11 Dalits and burnt their bodies in Belchhi village, just 5km away from Kumar’s ancestral village. It made national headlines when Indira Gandhi rode an elephant to reach the village.
“After this massacre, Nitish contested this assembly seat for the first time and lost by almost 6,000 votes to independent Bhola Prasad Singh, a Kurmi who openly supported the perpetrators of the massacre. He again lost the seat in 1980, and was able to finally win only in 1985, after pandering to the Belchhi perpetrators,” said Sanjay Kumar, a CPI-ML activist.
Kumar might have made a political compromise to survive in politics, but he cultivated a support base of the weaker social groups to consolidate his political power once he finally got a toehold. Two of his creations – extremely backward classes (EBCs) and Mahadalits – made the JD(U) a sought-after ally for both the BJP and RJD despite Kumar’s political somersaults. He perfected this social engineering by relying more on bureaucrats than dominant caste leaders to govern the state.
But some of this strategy appears to be fraying. “Look at teachers in Bihar; they are upset due to the approach of a bureaucrat (additional chief secretary (education) KK Pathak), who cancelled all their leaves. Deployed at polling centres, teachers play pivotal roles in increasing or decreasing the turnout. Nitish will face the consequences of this,” said Jitendra Prasad, a Nalanda advocate.
Changing contours
But Kumar also has formidable advantages. Back in Sohdih, 28-year-old farmer Sakaldeo Kumar Singh says that despite all their anger, people are still loyal to Kumar. “We are angry, but we can’t leave him. He is from our caste”, he said.
The JD (U) will also gain from the tailwinds for PM Modi. For Dukhan Ravidas, a 52-year-old Dalit shoe-maker in Harnaut, this election is only about re-electing Modi.
“ Modi is a messenger of development,” he said, pointing to Modi’s photo, beside Ambedkar’s in his shop.
This is what has changed in Nalanda between 2014 and 2024. Ten years ago, for the underclass in Nalanda, the election would have been primarily about Kumar, the son of the soil and harbinger of justice. Today, he is decidedly playing second fiddle to Modi.
(This is the 31st in a series of election reports from the field that look at national and local issues through an electoral lens.)