Bihar polls: Congress’s Poonam is Nitish’s nominee, introduced by RJD

This became apparent when some of them, mostly partly clad men and women darting out of their mudhouses, told the campaign team — consisting of RJD, JD(U) and Congress workers — that they had been told the previous night that the “arrow” (Nitish Kumar’s election symbol) is not in the fray this time and they should vote for the flower (the BJP’s lotus). The BJP candidate in this reserved constituency of Korha, Mahesh Paswan, had visited the basti that night.

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Two years have passed since Nitish Kumar’s arrow and the BJP’s lotus parted ways. A Lok Sabha poll has taken place since.

Poonam Paswan, the Congress candidate, tried to explain the realignments. “Nitish Kumar, Lalu Prasad and Sonia Gandhi are all together now,” she told voters, in Angika Maithili. “Look at the photographs in the pamphlet,” she told them, then asked her team to distribute the pamphlets.

An MA in political science, Poonam is young and full of energy. She has been the president of the Katihar district Congress and this is her debut in an assembly election.

“She is Nitish Kumar’s nominee. If elected, she will become a minister from the SC quota,” said the RJD’s zilla parishad member, Dhirendra Mehta. “We have all come together for development,” explained former Congress state general secretary Mohammad Maruf Hussain.

For the Congress, which has fought elections against Nitish Kumar in alliance with Lalu Prasad and also fought against both of them in assembly and Lok Sabha elections since 2000, preserving the party’s independent identity is a challenge. “With an alliance our identity is subsumed. Without an alliance we don’t have much electoral strength,” a Congress worked admitted.

Most of the 41 Congress candidates are now identified as people who will strengthen Nitish’s hands. Here, at least, coordination among the constituents of the alliance appears seamless on the ground, although there had been initial worries.

The Mahadalits and Dalits of Khudna village, half an hour’s drive from the bustling Purnea town, identify themselves with Nitish. In the Yadav-concentrated areas, Poonam becomes the nominee of the grand alliance; in Muslim areas, votes are sought in the name of Lalu and the Congress.

“It is only the Mahadalits and the Santhals (tribals) of the region who have to be told about the new formation. The others know,” Poonam Paswan said. The Congress campaign is largely in the name of Nitish in these parts, though the loudspeakers fitted on the SUV talk about the leadership of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and dilution in schemes of the UPA government.

“Who cemented these roads? It is Nitish Kumar who did it,” the RJD leader told the villagers, pointing at a road with cowdung strewn over it.

The alliance is facing a stiff challenge in this belt, divided between Purnea and Katihar, from Pappu Yadav’s Jan Adhikar Party and its ally, the NCP. Purnea was once Pappu’s stronghold, and the NCP’s Tariq Anwar is the MP from Katihar.

The contests are three- and four-cornered at some places. For instance, in Purnea town, Congress district president Indu Sinha is locked in a battle with Pappu Yadav’s Bhola Shah and the BJP’s Vijay Khemka. In Korha, Poonam faces a stiff challenge from former Congress leader and now NCP candidate Sunita Devi and the BJP’s Mahesh Paswan. In neighbouring Dhamdaha, former RJD MLA Dilip Yadav is Pappu’s nominee against JD(U) minister Leshi Singh.

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