Independent candidates can spoil the chances of India Alliance candidates in many seats in the 2nd phase phase by making a dent in the social base of the RJD. The most talked about seat in this context is the Purnea Parliamentary seat from where three-time MP Pappu Yadav is contesting as an Independent.

By Anish Ankur

April 25, 2024

Five Lok Sabha constituencies — Kishanganj, Purnia, Katihar, Bhagalpur and Banka — in Bihar that will vote in the second phase of the General Elections on Friday (26 April). This phase is significant for Bihar, as it includes key seats that could shape the political landscape of the state and influence national politics. Three of the five seats — Purnea, Kishanganj and Katihar— are in the Seemanchal area of the state with a considerable minority population. 

Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) as part of the NDA alliance is contesting all the seats in this phase. The Congress party will contest in three of its quota of nine out of the total 40 seats in the second phase. 

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi addressed his first election meeting in Bihar at Bhagalpur, a seat the party is contesting after more than two decades. The party has fielded MLA Ajeet Sharma against JD(U) sitting MP Ajay Mandal from the seat. Bhagalpur is important for the Congress. After the 1989 communal riots in Bhagalpur, Congress never won from Bhagalpur. The party lost its influence in the entire state and it also affected Congress in other states in the Hindi belt. The Muslim minorities of Bhagalpur never forgave Congress for its inability to prevent the ‘first state sponsored communal rights’ of independent India in which around one thousand people, mostly Muslims, had lost their lives.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge addressed election rallies in Kishanganj, and at Katihar where former Union minister Tariq Anwar is trying to wrest back this seat from JD(U) MP Dulal Chandra Goswami.

Independent candidates can spoil the chances of India Alliance candidates in many seats in this phase by making a dent in the social base of the RJD. The most talked about seat in this context is the Purnia Parliamentary seat from where three-time MP Pappu Yadav is contesting as an Independent. In Kishanganj, Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM is locked in a triangular contest with Congress’s candidate Mohammad Javed and JD(U)’s Mujahid Alam. The Hyderabad MP had spent four days in the Muslim-majority constituency, campaigning for Akhtarul Iman, the AIMIM’s lone MLA in Bihar who also heads the party’s state unit.

In Banka, where JD(U) MP Giridhari Yadav’s bid to retain the seat faces a challenge from his predecessor Jai Prakash Yadav of RJD.

Unsettling MY Equation through Pappu Yadav in Purnea 

Purnia seat this time has become the Begusarai of 2019. All eyes are on this seat. Purnea is locked in a triangular contest, with incumbent JD(U) MP Santosh Kumar, RJD nominee Bima Bharti, a JD(U) rebel, and independent candidate Pappu Yadav in the electoral fray. Pappu Yadav first made news when he joined the Congress last month amid speculation that he would be fielded from the constituency. But the Congress’s ally RJD refused to give up the constituency, making Pappu announce his decision to contest as an Independent from Purnea. Pappu’s Yadav wife is currently a Rajya Sabha MP from Congress.

Pappu is more likely to cut into the RJD’ core vote-bank of Muslims and Yadavs (M-Y) rather than the JD(U)’s social base comprising of forward castes, non-Yadav OBCs, and Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs). The former MP has also been drawing a good response from Muslims and Yadav who together have more than six lakh votes in Purnea. According to social activist and writer Devanand, based in Purnea, “There are forty two MLAs, one Rajya Sabha MP along with Tejasvi Yadav who are camping in Purnea to campaign against Pappu Yadav. Whether it will work or not is difficult to say but one thing is certain that there is a feeling among the Yadav caste that Pappu Yadav has been treated unfairly and it may go against the RJD’s candidate.” 

A lot of local and state level media including journalists are predicting an almost certain victory for Pappu Yadav from Purnea and trying to project him as an alternative to Tejasvi Yadav in Bihar politics. A consultant working with Pappu Yada’s media team, on condition of anonymity, said “A lot of journalists, numbering around two hundred fifty, are getting paid for this. They are writing positive stories about Pappu Yadav’s generous character and how he helped people during their dire need, when nobody came to alleviate their grief. Journalists are being paid according to their status. Local journalists are paid less in comparison to state as well as national level journalists.’’

But there are many who do not agree with this manufactured narrative. Lamenting on the situation of Purnea after Pappu Yadav came to limelight, Rajeev Jadaun a former AISF activist cum journalist, hailing from a village in Purnea parliamentary constituency, said “Every city has its own culture. Purnia did Punea. Literary figures like Satinath Bhaduri, Phanishwarnath Renu and political leaders like Anuplal Mandal were the identity of Purnea in the past. Renowned poet Ramdhari Singh Dinkar had written his famous poetry book “Rashmirathi” while staying here. The most important and basic thing for such a vibrant environment is peace and tranquillity! But the advent of Pappu Yadav in the political scene of Purnea changed everything. During Pappu Yadav’s time, an employee in a restaurant would be murdered simply  because he had served chicken meat a little late. The Bengali community, which added to the cultural diversity of Purnia, Pappu Yadav’s henchmen started forcibly occupying their houses. One by one the Bengalis of Purnia started migrating. The traders of Gulabbagh, Dhamdaha, Kasba, Bhawanipur had to pay ransom money in fixed amounts every month.”

Rajeev further added “In that period, a lot of people were killed because of their caste identity. Rangu Singh, Parmanand Chaudhary, Kalanand Jha… There is a list of dozens of people who were killed in broad daylight. The whole world is aware of how the MLA of Purnea and CPI(M) leader Comrade Ajit Sarkar was brutally murdered. Many people argue that Pappu Yadav has helped people during the floods in Patna; he runs a ‘Seva Ashram’ in Delhi etc. I want to ask those people, have you ever thought from where does the money for such social work come to Pappu Yadav? That money is collected by extorting businessmen, doctors and contractors etc.”

A phenomenon can be observed in Purnea and it contains within it a design to unsettle the formidable alliance of secular parties. Those supporting Pappu Yadav are targeting Lalu Prasad Yadav and Tejasvi Yadav. The popular narrative is that Lalu Prasad feels threatened by Pappu Yadav’s rise and therefore to secure the political future of his son Tejasvi Yadav he has denied ticket to Pappu Yadav. They allege that Lalu Prasad had committed the same thing during the 2019 parliamentary elections by trying to not give ticket to Kanhaiya Kumar just to protect the political career of Tejasvi Yadav. They say that Pappu Yadav is not a Kanhaiya Kumar who could easily be branded as an upper caste guy. Pappu belongs to the same Yadav caste and therefore the RJD leadership is worried about him. And whether he loses or wins he will surely be a challenger to Tejasvi Yadav in Bihar politics. This is the common thread of all the stories being run by allegedly paid journalists and this narrative seems to have gained ground in some sections, particularly among the Yadavs and Muslims.

Mistrust between JD(U) and BJP 

Since JD(U) is fighting in Purnea therefore there is not much at stake for BJP in this seat. A lot of mistrust has emerged between JD(U) and BJP. In the first phase, all the four seats were contested by BJP, and there is talk going on that most of the JD(U) support base didn’t vote for BJP. The mistrust between these two NDA partners can be gauged from this simple fact that Nitish Kumar didn’t campaign with Narendra Modi.

Now it’s BJP’s turn to pay back Nitish Kumar. A lot of BJP cadres and supporters are campaigning for Pappu Yadav in Purnea. Even Pappy Yadav has given an interview to a YouTube channel where he has claimed “RSS is behind me and the RSS chief rang me to express his support for me.”

Tejasvi Yadav is spending a lot of time in Purnea to ensure the victory of his candidate. It seems Purnea seat has become a prestige issue for the RJD leadership. The former MP has also been drawing a good response from Muslims and Yadav who together have more than six lakh votes. Against this backdrop, RJD leader and former Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav told the crowd at a public meeting, “If you are not supporting Bima Bharati, let the JD(U) win.” There are reports of some clashes between RJD and Pappu Yadav supporters. 

After the polling on 26th April, Pappu Yadav may move to Siwan to support Hina Sahab, wife of Mohammad Shahbbuddin, accused in the murder case of JNUSU president Chandrashkehar. Like Pappu Yadav, Hina Sahab is also contesting as an independent candidate from Siwan. Hina was offered a ticket by RJD but she refused and declared her candidature as an independent. It seems the same story will be repeated in Siwan and Hina will be the rallying point of all the forces inimical to Lalu family. The candidature of both Paapu and Hina — one Yadav and another Muslim — are proof of how anti-RJD forces are trying to create confusion within the core base of the RJD.

RJD also faces a lot of resentment among some sections of minorities in the Seemanchal area. The emergence of AIMIM has contributed to the alienation of minorities, to some extent, from the RJD. Some prominent minority faces of RJD like Asfak Karim in the Seemanchal area have left RJD after being denied ticket to contest. Ashfak Karim, who runs medical colleges in Katihar, switched over to JD(U), when Katihar seat went to Congress under seat sharing arrangement.

AIMIM and RJD in the Seemanchal 

During the last assembly elections of 2020 in the Seemanchal region AIMIM had managed to win five seats. Many political observers opine that the RJD led Mahagathbandhan lost to NDA with a narrow margin in 2020 because of the AIMIM factor, which cut into the RJD’s muslim votes. However, four of the AIMIM MLAs later shifted to RJD. This also contributed to the enmity between RJD and AIMIM. AIMIM has made an announcement of supporting the candidature of Hina Sahab in Siwan much to the discomfort of the RJD.

There is a narrative that RJD only uses minorities to further its electoral interests but never gives them proper representation. In this election also only two Muslims are contesting on the RJD symbol despite Muslims having a share of around 17 percent in the state’s population, while Yadavs were given eleven seats with just 14 percent population, as per the recent caste survey conducted by the Bihar government. Seemanchal area is witnessing a gradual weakening of the RJD among minorities at the cost of AIMIM. AIMIM current Bihar chief Akhtarul Iman was the RJD MLA till the recent past.

During assembly elections Pappu Yadav had made alliances with some of the Kerala based Muslims outfits like SDPI, AIUML etc. Explaining the electoral dynamics of Pappu Yadav, Gopal Sharma, a CPI(M) activist based in Patna, commented “During the 2020 assembly election these Kerala based anti-Left parties were fighting in association with Pappu Yadav against the RJD-Left led combine. They came to Bihar just because their principal enemy, the Communist parties in Kerala were in alliance with the RJD in Bihar. It was a strange phenomenon. Pappu Yadav fielded mostly Muslim candidates from the Muslim dominated constituency to dent the minority vote of  the Mahagathbandhan in 2020. Pappu Yadav is staunchly anti-communist. He was the main accused in the murder of the popular CPI(M) leader and MLA of Purnea, Ajit Sarkar. Therefore you can understand how everything is being played out in Purnea constituency.’’

Gopal Sharma added “Pappu Yadav comes from a landlord family of Purnea. His family owned hundreds of acres of land. Ajit Sarkar’s struggle was to end feudal rule in Purnea. He had to lay his life in this struggle. Moreover, Pappu Yadav’s family also adhere to the ‘Anandmargi’ sect, considered to be  anti-communist outfit. The role of Pappu Yadav in the Purulia arms drop case is not above suspicion. It was never properly investigated.’’

Late Ajit Sarkar is still the issue in Purnea constituency

The murder of Ajit Sarkar is the biggest blot on Pappu Yadav’s political career and is haunting him continuously. Ajit Sarkar was murdered on 14 June 1998. He was a three time MLA of the CPI(M) from Purnea town. Pappu Yadav, who lost the 1995 assembly election to Ajit Sarkar, was convicted in that sensational murder case. Pappu Yadav was awarded life sentence by the trial court but was acquitted by the Patna High Court. Before his acquittal he spent several years behind the bar. After coming out of jail he has been trying to change his image by indulging in social work.

But despite all his efforts Pappu Yadav is still considered a fearsome gangster-politician. Aman Lal, student of Patna University, wrote in his social media post — Even today around 35 thousand families of Purnia consider Ajit Sarkar as an martyr. The people of Purnia will vote for the struggle and martyrdom of Ajit Dada in this Lok Sabha election to save his legacy and not fall for a criminal who defamed Purnia and the entire Seemanchal region in the country.’’ 

The JD(U) might have reasons to smile in Purnea because Pappu is likely to make a serious dent in Bima’s votes. But whether he can pull off a surprise win will depend more on what he gets besides M-Y votes. It will be a tall task for an Independent to upset all caste calculations and defeat JD(U), which won Purnia with over 54% vote share in 2019 and about 41 vote share in 2014.