Contractor diverted flood relief as pre-poll sop for voters in his home and constituency

Jha, who calls RJD leader Sadhu Yadav his ‘‘brother’’ and sings Goswami’s praises, flooded the two blocks with relief material. His home village Sanghi was not even flood-hit but supplies kept flowing in. The reason wasn’t far to find.

Months later, he contested the Bihar elections on Ram Vilas Paswan’s LJP ticket from Madhepur in Madhubani. He turned to the LJP after he was denied a ticket by the RJD under whose rule he made his pile. Though he didn’t win the seat, he still managed 6,000 plus votes. After the expose, Paswan claimed he had no idea how Jha got the ticket!

Officials in Madhubani, not willing to be named, confirm that government relief supplies meant for distribution were diverted to Jha’s area to ‘‘build up a popular image’’ in the run-up to the polls.

Jha’s ‘‘flood relief operations’’, being conducted under the banner of the Public Welfare Foundation, distributed the same material which the government had set aside for the flood-hit: chura, gur, sattu and polythene sheets. Those considered his loyalists even had access to kerosene oil.

In Sanghi, there’s no confusion on who’s behind the Public Welfare Foundation. Says Jha’s neighbour Bimal Chandra Jha: ‘‘Till date it has been a one-man show. Santosh Jha manages the affairs. There are no office bearers, not to our knowledge at least.’’

Seven confiscated cars, including a brand new Tata Sumo Victa, lie in a government shed near Lakhnour police station. They are in the name of the Public Welfare Foundation.

After the scam was exposed by The Indian Express, RJD’s Sadhu Yadav claimed he had no links with Jha. But Sadhu Yadav was among the VIPs present when the Public Welfare Foundation’s relief operations in Phulparas and Ghoghardiha was launched on September 25, 2004.

The rally near Durgasthan in Sanghi was so huge that the idea of on-the-spot relief distribution had to be abandoned. ‘‘It would have led to a stampede,’’ recalls a resident.

The crowd was told that relief would reach every home in tractors. Jha kept his word. For almost four months, the tractors did bring in relief. The ‘‘relief operation’’ was finally called off when volunteers, unable to take the strain of travelling to the interiors daily, began to fall sick.

Residents say that posters with photographs of Sadhu Yadav and other leaders were plastered in every corner of Sanghi. Once the flood scam broke, these posters disappeared overnight.

‘‘He (Jha) was rising fast. He was Neta-type, distributing free supplies. Each family got something or the other though we didn’t have the floods here,’’ says Musharam Mukhia in Sanghi. ‘‘Santosh has not taken anything from us. But he has given us lots,’’ adds Benoy Kumar Jha. Others nod in agreement.

Jha’s home in Sanghi is a two-storeyed building, surrounded by thatched huts. Though not as luxurious as his Patna mansion, it has an air-conditioner. The second floor, still incomplete, was built after the floods.