Father’s legacy his strength, Chirag Paswan the favourite in Hajipur race, RJD relies on social calculus

The sense on the ground is that Hajipur, which votes on May 20 in the fifth phase, will be an easy win for Chirag against the Rashtriya Janata Dal’s (RJD) Shiv Chandra Ram but the LJP (Ram Vilas) chief is not leaving anything to chance. “I need blessings of my father and also the PM just as I need blessings of my people,” Chirag said on the sidelines of a recent public meeting in the constituency.

The LJP (Ram Vilas) chief had to fight hard to overtake his uncle Pashupati Kumar Paras, the current Hajipur MP, in the NDA — the dispute between the two had split the LJP — and occupy the space that his father once held. Now, comes the harder part of cementing his position as the true inheritor of his father’s legacy by winning Hajipur. In an interview to The Indian Express in March, Chirag said he felt the “onus of carrying forward” his father’s legacy. “To top it all, I have to live up to the expectations of the people of Hajipur, which was almost synonymous with my father for over four decades,” he said.

The RJD play

With a 21% Dalit population, Hajipur is one of six seats in Bihar reserved for the Scheduled Castes (SCs). Among the parliamentary constituency’s Assembly segments are Hajipur, Lalganj, Mahua, Rajapakad, Raghopur, and Mahnar. RJD leader and Leader of the Opposition Tejashwi Yadav is the MLA of Raghopur, which is Yadav-dominated.

Of the 19.5 lakh voters in Hajipur, an estimated three lakh approximately are Paswans and about two lakh each are Yadavs and Muslims. There are one lakh each of upper-caste Rajputs and Bhumihars, about 1.25 lakh Kushwahas, 80,000 Ravidas community members, and 50,000 Kurmis.

Shiv Chandra Ram is banking on social arithmetic, with support from the party’s Muslim-Yadav combination and his Ravidas community, categorised as SC, as the foundation of his challenge. He will also be hoping that Vijay Kumar Shukla, or Munna Shukla as he is popularly known, who is his party’s candidate in neighbouring Vaishali manages to mobilise a significant chunk of Bhumihar votes in his favour.

An LJP worker in Lalganj said, “Now that Munna Shukla is with the RJD, a sizeable Bhumihar votes could shift towards them. More than 20 party workers from several caste groups have deserted us and they can damage us in some pockets.”

Among voters, local factors largely take precedence, with even traditional LJP supporters saying that they will back Chirag despite some apprehensions. “This constituency has been the known turf of the Paswan family but Pashupati Kumar Paras hardly remained connected with us in the last five years. Though we will support Chirag, we are afraid of this constituency remaining a VIP seat,” said Ravi Paswan, 30, a resident of Mahnar who works in a private firm.

A resident of Rajapakar block, Gudiya Devi, said, “Modi ji bahut kuchh diye hain, free ration milta hai (PM Modi has given us a lot, we get free ration).” Devi said she would continue to bless Chirag Devi added that Chirag continued visiting them and they would surely “bless” him.

In Rajapakad, an SC-dominated area, voters are divided along caste and community lines. While Muslims, Yadavs and the Ravidas community are showing a preference for the RJD, non-Yadav OBC, Extremely Backward Classes (EBC), and the upper castes seem in favour of the LJP (Ram Vilas).

Ramesh Singh, a 40-year-old farmer in Hajipur, said several villages in the area now had eight to 10 newly appointed government teachers. “Though Tejashwi has won our hearts by giving jobs to many of the youth, we can vote for him only in the Assembly polls. We are looking to vote for Narendra Modi at the Centre again,” he said.

Announcing that he would vote for Shiv Chandra Ram, 50-year-old Rajesh Ram in Mahua said, “I have seen Chirag from a distance but Shiv Chandra Ram is a local. We want someone whom we can approach easily after elections.”

Addressing a public meeting in Rajapakad on Monday, Tejashwi Yadav said, “The sea of humanity at this place shows which way the wind is blowing. We are talking about jobs while PM Modi is trying to sell dreams. All the calculations of our political rivals will fall flat.” In his speech, Shiv Chandra Ram said he would pull off a surprise. “I am the real representative of the poor people of Hajipur … Chirag Paswan is a borrowed player from Jamui.”

But above everything else, the biggest arsenal in Chirag’s arsenal is his father’s legacy. Ram Vilas Paswan is still mentioned everywhere in the constituency. “He remembered the names of several of us. Though he would not visit us regularly, he brought several industries to Hajipur. We used to proudly say that we come from Ram Vilas Paswan’s Hajipur,” said Mohan Kumar, 45, a shopkeeper at Hajipur market.