Two debutants, son and daughter of JD-U ministers, in direct fight

Totally oblivious of the election heat, Vishwanath Rai, 51, is busy irrigating the land near Angar Ghat to save his crop of maize from the continued heat spell.

“Every year, it is turning out to be a losing bargain as a sharecropper due to excessively hot weather and lack of irrigation facility. Now I feel it is not my cup of tea,” laments Rai, who has a family of 14 to feed, including three married sons and grandchildren.

Rai’s sons, all graduates, go to Mumbai to work as labourers every year.

“Here, there is no avenue. Their earnings is also not enough to sustain their families. I somehow manage, but now I think I will also better go to Punjab or Mumbai, as agriculture is becoming a big challenge. Even for proper voltage to run the boring, one has to wait for hours. It takes a long time to irrigate even one katha of land,” he says, showing his wilting crop of maize.

Subsistence agriculture and growing unpredictability have abetted migration in Samastipur despite the apparent development in terms of roads, bridges and electricity in the region. This is the story across Mithilanchal, once famous for maachh (fish), Makhana (fox nut) and paan, besides abundance of water bodies.

“We will vote for whoever our society decides, but we know there is none to think of farmers. Voting preferences are decided at the last moment and things can change fast. We don’t know the candidates much,” says Saraswati Devi, 61, a daily wage labourer.

Ganga Sagar, 65, also a labourer, says they have heard about election between “phool” and “haath”.

It is altogether a different matter that Shambhavi Choudhary, 25, has got the LJP-R ticket with helicopter as poll symbol as the NDA candidate against the Congress (Hand symbol) candidate Sunny Hazari.

Both candidates are children of JD- ministers in the Nitish Kumar cabinet, but in the electoral field, they are up against each other.

At village Hirni, locals told Shambhavi that they would vote for Kamal (lotus, the BJP symbol), after which she had to make them understand how voting for her would require them to press the button of helicopter (LJP-R) symbol.

The people in general are, however, mostly indifferent about election.

The usual banners, posters and miking are also missing. They know free ration, aspire for Ayushman card, but are upset with corruption at the lower strata, which makes them pay even for the PM housing scheme or get the names enrolled for ration card or the old age pension.

“We will vote for Narendra Modi, not any candidate, as the Opposition also does not offer much hope. Modi is at least doing something for the nation,” says Sagar.

Rajiv Kumar Singh, a former Sarpanch, however, says that Maheshwar Hazari’s long association with the area will go in the favour of his son Sunny Hazari, even though he may not be able to campaign openly due to his association with the JD-U.

“Sunny was also trying for LJP-R ticket, but when he was denied he had no option. Here LJP has traditionally been a strong force, but with split in the party the voters and supporters are not happy. The fight will be direct,” he says.

Shambhavi’s father and JD-U minister Ashok Choudhary is campaigning hard for her. Her father-in-law Acharya Kishor Kunal, former IPS officer and secretary of the Mahavir Mandir Trust, has also stepped in for her.

“I never had any penchant for politics even though many people wanted me to join. But my daughter-in-law is here to script history as the youngest candidate and I wish she wins with the highest margin. It’s like my son is in the fray,” says Kunal.

Shambhavi, 25, is the youngest candidate in the ongoing parliamentary polls in the country.

Samastipur (reserved) seat goes to polls in the fourth phase on May 13. Though there are 14 candidates in the fray, the contest is largely between Shambhavi Choudhary and Sunny Hazari.

A Delhi University alumnus, Shambhavi says that the charisma and performance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the development work of chief minister Nitish Kumar, especially for the women’s empowerment, would make Samastipur go for a “deserving daughter” this time to herald a refreshing change.

Sunny Hazari, 33, an engineer from NIT Patna, is himself a block pramukh and has a family legacy in the district, with father and grandfather late Ram Sevak Hazari having been elected as MP in the past. He calls himself a son of the soil to give the election colour of “local versus outsider”.

LJP-R chief Chirag Paswan’s cousin Prince Raj, the sitting MP who won the Samastipur seat after the death of his father Ramchandra Paswan, is not contesting after being denied ticket for siding with the Pashupati Kumar Paras camp. Congress leader Ashok Kumar, who finished second in the last three elections from Samastipur, is also not in the fray this time.

Samastipur seat was once represented by former CM Karpoori Thakur, who posthumously got Bharat Ratna this year and is regarded as the harbinger of subaltern revolution in the state politics that finds its echo to date. Ramnath Thakur, son of Karpoori Thakur, had accompanied Shambhavi when she filed nomination.

CM Kumar also campaigned for her and attacked his cabinet colleague Hazari for anti-party activities. PM modi addressed a public meeting in the neighbouring Darbhanga on May 4 and Shambhavi was also present at the dais. He asked the people to ensure her victory to make her the youngest MP.