Bihar LS polls: It’s all in the family despite noise against dynastic politics

Despite all the hype against it, dynastic politics has been found convenient in equal measure by both the alliances in Bihar in the Lok Sabha elections, as was the case in the past.

The BJP, which called it the most dangerous trend, has fielded Rajya Sabha member Vivek Thakur, son of former union minister and state BJP president Dr CP Thakur, from Nawada, which went to polls in the first phase.

From Aurangabad, BJP nominee and sitting MP Sushil Singh is the son of former MP Ram Naresh Singh. Sushil Singh has won the seat four times and thrice is succession since 2009, while his father had won twice in 1989 and 1991.

From RJD, two daughters of party chief Lalu Prasad are in the electoral fray this time — Misa Bharti from Pataliputra and Rohini Acharya from Saran. Rohini is making her electoral debut this time and Lalu Prasad himself camped there for two days.

In Gaya, RJD has fielded former Bihar minister Sarvjeet Kumar against HAM-S chief Jitan Ram Manjhi. Sarvjeet is the son of former Gaya MP Rajesh Kumar. The election for Gaya was held in the first phase.

In Buxar, state RJD president Jagdanand Singh’s son Sudhakar Singh is in the fray. Jagdanand had won the seat in 2009 and was runners-up in 2014 and 2019, but Sudhakar, a legislator, is yet to win a Lok Sabha election.

Bima Bharti, wife of jailed strongman Awadhesh Mandal, is the RJD candidate from Purnea. She had won Rupauli assembly seat on the JD-U ticket last time.

Anita Mahto, who married convicted gangster Ashok Mahto just ahead of elections, is the RJD candidate from Munger against JD-U’s Rajiv Ranjan alias Lalan Singh.

JD-U minister Ashok Choudhary’s daughter Shambhavi Choudhary is making her electoral debut from Samastipur (reserved) constituency on LJP ticket. She is the youngest candidate in Bihar and her father has been pulling all the stops out for her victory.

Pitted against her is another debutant, Sunny Hazari, who is the son of another JD-U minister Maheshwar Hazari. He got ticket from the Congress for a seat that was once represented by his father as well as grandfather.

JD-U MLC Dinesh Singh’s wife Veena Devi is also a candidate from Vaishali on the LJP-R ticket. She had won the seat last time also on LJP ticket and was the only one to be retained from the Paras camp after she switched over.

JD-U has also fielded Vijay Lakshmi from Siwan. She is the wife of former MLA Ramesh Kumar Kushwaha. Former MP Lovely Anand, wife of Anand Mohan Singh, is the JD-U candidate from Sheohar.

Bihar Congress president Akhilesh Singh’s son Aakash Singh is tipped for a party ticket from Maharajganj. Last time, he had tried his luck from East Champaran Lok Sabha seat on the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) ticket, but lost.

Congress veteran and former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar’s son Anshul Kumar is set to be fielded by the party from Patna Sahib seat, a stronghold of BJP. A first-timer, he will be up against senior BJP leader and present MP Ravi Shankar Prasad.

In LJP-R, party chief Chirag Paswan’s brother-in-law Arun Bharti has jumped into the electoral fray for the first time from Jamui seat. Having won the legacy war with his uncle in Hajipur, LJP-R chief Chirag Paswan passed on his legacy in Jammu to his brother-in-law.

A two-time MP from Jamui, Chirag will contest this year form Hajipur, a seat represented by his father nine times before his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras won it in 2019.

It was Jamui from where Prime Minister Narendra Modi started his Bihar leg of election campaign and later also went to Nawada, prompting RJD to question his stand on dynastic politics.

Social analyst Nawal Kishore Choudhary says dynastic politics is a harsh reality and no party was untouched by it. “The changing dynamics of election has ensured that there is very little space for new entrants or those who don’t have the strong backing of any party or money power. The problem is that no party is ready to break this trend, which denies the party workers their due. All the parties take their workers for granted and resort to familiar buzz only at the time of election. Now, for tickets candidates are happy going to any party,” he said.

Former election consultant Prashant Kishor, during his interaction with people in course of his “Jan Suraj Yatra”, has often said there was no caste politics in Bihar, but “dynastic politics” flourishing in its grab for decades.