Jitan Ram Manjhi’s birthplace still hopes all will ‘vote for bhaiyya’

Madheshwar, a cousin, lives with his wife and 10 children where Jitan Ram’s family lived before they moved to the adjacent Mahakar village. He knows on October 18, “I will vote for bhaiyya.”

It is not a straightforward choice: neither Jitan Ram nor his party, HAM, is contesting from the unreserved Atri constituency within which Hathiawan falls. The ticket was given to the LJP and makes things seemingly difficult for Manjhi’s supporters — he is engaged in a private battle with the LJP’s Ram Vilas Paswan over the title of Bihar’s Tallest Dalit Leader. Jitan Ram will contest from Makhdumpur and Imamganj.

Jitender Choudhary, of the Mahadalit caste Pasi, insists he will vote “for Manjhi”. “He was a former chief minister; that makes him a bigger leader than Paswan any day,” he reasoned.

The mood in the Dalit hamlets of the 600-house-strong Hathiawan, with over a 30-per-cent SC population, remains strongly in favour of strengthening Manjhi’s hands by voting for LJP candidate Arvind Singh. They have little to vote for otherwise — electrification, which began earlier this year, is far from complete. Villagers say Manjhi last dropped in almost 10 years ago, after he was appointed minister in Nitish Kumar’s 2005-10 government.

Manjhi’s rise has meant that those of his Musahar caste, a group that performs among the lowest in the state in socioeconomic and health indicators, has discovered a strong sense of political pride. “There were times when our elders would not go to vote because they were scared the police would beat them up for doing so. Almost always, people of our caste voted according to what the local strongmen demanded,” said Madheshwar, adding that alcohol often had an influence on Musahar voting patterns.
At Mahakar, a Bhumihar-dominated village where his is the only Musahar family, Manjhi’s rise has brought tangible rewards in the form of a new upgraded middle school building, police station, additional primary health centre and a solar-powered drinking water project.

The former CM’s house is the largest in the village. No one was home Monday. Ramta Manjhi, sleeping on a mat in the courtyard, introduced himself as Jitan Ram’s brother-in-law. He was joined by Sitaram Singh, a Bhumihar, who began admonishing the Musahars for not voting. “Your people never land up at the polling booth,” he began and then went on to list a number of grouses, including the fact that he was unsure of supporting Arvind Singh, despite his being a Bhumihar supported by the BJP, as he is from outside the constituency.

Ramta waited for Sitaram to finish his 20-minute monologue and leave. Then, he said, smiling: “We Musahars can’t wait for the elections to come; our men have even put off leaving the village (to work as labourers in other cities) so that they can vote first.”