“Suna hai ab train Chalegi
Mere shehar se tumhare shehar tak
Bichhegi rail line nayi
Judenge do shehar
Aaj hi padha hai akhbar me”
(“I’ve heard the train will soon run
From my city to yours
A new railway line will be laid,
Two cities will be joined
I just read it in today’s newspaper.”)
While sitting at a bustling tea stall in the heart of Sheohar, the lines of poet Sunil Srivastav echo in the memories of 55-year-old Suman Raut. He recalls the days when newspapers were filled with hopeful headlines about the government’s announcement to bring a railway line to his district. Nearly two decades later, Raut is still waiting to hear the whistle of a train arriving in his city- making Sheohar one of the two districts in Bihar that still does not have a railway station and a railway line. The second one is Arwal, where the imprints of massacre of Dalits by Bhumihar militia Ranveer Sena still haunts the people. Both districts are set to go to the polls in the second phase of the election on November 11.
“Hum ta apan tham train Nahiye dekh sakbai. Tahan bh sakai chhai hamar dhiya puta dekhai (I might not be able to see the train here in my lifetime, but maybe my children will see it),” says Raut with a tinge of disappointment in his voice, adding that the issue takes the centerstage at every election but become redundant afterward.
Located on the bank of River Bagmati in North Bihar, Sheohar was carved out of Sitamarhi district in 1994 when Rashtriya Janata Dal (then Janata Dal) supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav was the chief minister of the state. It was the demand of his close aid and former minister Raghunath Jha, which led to the formation of the district. Jha was the MLA for 23 years between 1972 to 1995 from the seat, a RJD’s stronghold. Later Jha’s son Ajit Kumar Jha also became MLA in 2005. Now, his grandson Navneet Kumar Jha is contesting election for the first time from the seat.
The Janata Dal (United) has fielded Shweta Gupta in place of its two-time MLA Mohammad Sharfuddin, who lost to RJD’s Chetan Anand Singh in the 2020 Assembly election. Chetan Anand- the son of former MP and strongman Anand Mohan and current Sheohar MP Lovely Anand- was among the three RJD MLAs who cross-voted in favor of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) during the February 2024 trust vote, helping Chief Minister Nitish Kumar secure a majority in the Vidhan Sabha. This time, the JDU has fielded him from the Nabinagar Assembly constituency in Aurangabad.
Back at the tea stall, the conversation over a Railway line quickly spread into many discussions of caste, development, national security, migration, unemployment, low income, human rights, credibility of EVMs, democracy etc. When Yadav became the Railway minister, he sanctioned the 77-km Railway line from Motihari to Sitamari via Sheohar at the cost of Rs. 1007 crore. Later, its extension 189-km Sitamarhi-Jaynagar (Madhubani)-Nirmali (Supaul) via Sursand new line was sanctioned at the cost of Rs. 2833 crore in 2008-09.
65-years old Satender Singh steps into the heated political discussion. “I remember around 25 years back Nitish Kumar had come to Sheohar and he said that whenever Jha ji (Raghunath Jha) meets me, he only talks about this Railway line. So, he expedited the work of the line,”said Singh, implying that it was Nitish Kumar who initiated the work on the railway line. However, others questioned why the project could not be completed despite Nitish Kumar’s 20 years as Chief Minister, 10 years of representation by a BJP MP, and the current MP belonging to the JD(U).
“If Raghunath Jha would have been here, the story could have been very different. People are electing the outsiders, not the candidate of Sheohar. They are saying Nitish brought economic development, aap aarthik ghulami se toh ubar sakte hain, maansik ghulami se kaise ubarenge (You can get rid of economic slavery, but how will you get rid of mental slavery?). That is what Lalu gave us, freedom from mental slavery,” said Abhinesh Kumar, who works in Zomato company in Gurgaon, currently on work from home assignment.
Suman Raut outlines the history of the Sheohar. “The district was formed primarily because of the Bagmati River. Sitamarhi is on the other side of it and at that time there was no bridge connecting both sides. We had to go through the boat, sometimes sailing for hours, to get the basic things done. If there is any emergency situation, it is most likely to be fatal. So, Jha ji pushed for a new district. Now, we have our own DM, SP office etc., but a train appears to be very far from reality,” said Raut, a property dealer in the smallest district of Bihar. It has just one Vidhan Sabha constituency and headquarters is the only town in the whole district.
35-years old Chandal Patel interjects in the discussion to tell a story of casteism linked with the train. “When the trains used to pass from Mokama, the Dalits and Chhotka Jaat (Backward caste) passengers had to stand up and put their chappal on their head to make way for the so-called upper caste people. Lalu Yadav changed it, he himself travelled in the trains,” said Patel, while thumping at the wooden table in anger.
Krishna Nandan Ram, an auto driver, responds back to him. “Lalu ke time pe sabhi balisht mantri Rajput the (All the powerful ministers in Lalu government were from powerful Rajput caste). The backward voted for him, the forward reaped all the facilities,” said the man before rushing to his auto for Sitamarhi.
Around 100 meters from the discussion site at Zero Mile, Ajit Kumar is worried that he might miss his train. He has already travelled 20-km from the interior to come to Sheohar and he has to travel 60-km more to Muzaffarpur to take the train for Jamalpur in Munger district.
“The money and time I have to spend to travel to Muzaffarpur from Sheohar is much higher than it takes for Muzaffarpur to Jamalpur. I have to spend almost Rs. 200 hundred to go from Sheohar to Muzaffarpur to take a train, whereas It takes only Rs. 80 to reach from Muzaffarpur to Jamalpur, which is around 180-km far. Had it been a railway station in my district, I would not have to bother so much,” said Kumar, who works in a workshop.
Madan Kumar is frustrated that If he wants to go to Muzaffarpur after 6 pm, he faces a lot of difficulty in getting an auto. “Agar yha station hota toh usse hum apna kehte. Muzaffarpur feels like other’s station. If government has made a district, they should give a Railway line as well. Why is this disparity with us to bother Mithilavaasi (Maithili People),” said Kumar, while leaving to take Guwahati train.
Around 200-km from here to Arwal’s Sakri, Sonu Sharma, a businessman, has the similar concern. “It is not always about going to cities like Delhi or Mumbai. It is about going to smaller cities. We need a train to go to our capital Patna, that would be the biggest relief for us,” said the man, while adding that Nitish Kumar made the effort for the line.
Situated on the bank of River Son, a tributary of River Ganga, Arwal district was formed in 2001 from Jehanabad district which was earlier in Gaya district, when Rabri Devi was the chief minister, with the primary focus to curb violence against Dalits after the infamous Laxmanpur Bathe massacre in 1997, when 58 schedule caste people were killed by Ranvir Sena in retaliation to Bara massacre in which 37 upper caste people were killed.
The 120-kilometre Bihta–Aurangabad via Anugrahanarayan Road railway line project, passing through the district, was sanctioned in 2007–08, at a cost of Rs. 2995 crore, during Lalu Prasad Yadav’s tenure as Railway Minister.
The district has two Vidhan Sabha constituencies- Arwal and Kurtha. The current Arwal MLA Maha Nand Singh of CPI (ML) Liberation is again into the election fray who will face BJP’s Manoj Sharma. Sharma earlier won the MLA election of Aurangabad’s Goh constituency in 2015. Arwal comes under the Jehanabad Lok Sabha constituency, where the current MP is RJD’s Surendra Prasad Yada.
“Every political party claims to bring a railway line here, but nobody has done anything significant so far. We have heard that there is a survey ongoing. We are hopeful this time since Sharma has links with Railways and he has worked with the department, he might do something,” said Rajesh Kumar, who runs a restaurant in Sakri.
Balli Paswan introduces the houses of Laxmanpur Bathe not by their names, but by the number of people who were brutally killed on the night of December 1, 1997. A lonely plaque, installed in a small concrete structure by a village man near the bank of River son, bears the list of 58-people killed, including the youngest one year old.
“Prasashan tight ho gaya hai, Vichar nahi badla hai, vichar toh ab bhi unke vahi hain (The administration has become strong, but the thinking has not changed, their thinking is still the same,” 58-year old Paswan sums up the caste-divide in the state, referring to the Patna High Court judgement in 2013, which acquitted all 26 accused citing the “lack of evidence”.
Vinod Paswan says that despite coming from a party whose whole politics in the region was centred around Laxmipur Bathe massacre, Maha Nand Singh could not provide even a park in the name of “Shaheed”.
“Before the election, he had promised to give a library, park and memorial in the village. The one you saw has been built from personal money when nobody listened to us. It was shifted from a house. He had also promised the dredging of a canal passing along the village and built a bridge over it. This has also remained unfulfilled,”said Paswan, a farmer in the village.
When asked about the railway, Devendra Pratap jokes, “We call this sand ghat on the Son river our station. We climb onto the sand trucks here and ride all the way to Patna.”
“People of Arwal have three options to take the train- Jehanabad, Anugrah narayan (also called power ganj) and Bihta. All of them are at least 50-km far from respective nearby places. We are located in a very secluded place. Even today, it is immensely difficult to get a vehicle for these places after 6pm. So, if a train stops late at night on these stations, we have to wait the whole night to get a vehicle in the day for the village. Not only this, we have to spend extra for every journey, just going to the station takes Rs. 100 to 250, depending on the train,” said Pratap, a farmer.
In the nearby village Koil Bhupat, Indravati Devi says that the absence of a railway line in the region is an insult to the district.
“The poor have only one option for the long journeys-Train. The rich have many options: private vehicles, flight etc. Every district has its dignity and in order to maintain that, the government should provide at least basic things. If other districts have a station, why can’t we have one? The population also has increased over the years, so there is no issue of ridership as well,” said 45-years old Devi, a teacher in the government school.
A senior official of Railways said that a lot of time was spent in land acquisition, which led to the delay of the project. “The Sitamarhi-Sheohar line is 29 percent complete and it is being expedited in the upcoming years. As far as Bihta-Aurangabad line is concerned, a fresh final location survey was sanctioned on 01.02.2023. Subsequently, the 13-km Aurangabad terminal-Anugrah Narayan Road project was sanctioned on 26.06.2024 and it is targeted to be completed in June 2027. For the balance section, the detailed project report is under preparation,” said the official.
