Lok Sabha polls: Legacy, development aspirations key factors in Hajipur seat
In Hajipur, Gunjan Kumar seeks employment and leans towards RJD, while his father supports PM Modi.
Twenty-year-old Gunjan Kumar spends 12 hours out of the house every single day. He leaves the 250-square-foot four room home his father Suresh Das, a daily wage labourer, built assiduously over several years in Hajipur’s Masjid Chowk, at 8 am. For the next half a day, he meanders the clogged streets of the town on the outskirts of Patna, hunting for customers on his battery-powered three wheeler.
Chirag Paswan might face stiff opposition from political dark horse, RJD’s Shiv Chandra Ram
In all this time, he earns between ₹400 and 500 a day, but after rental instalments for the vehicle, and food, there is very little left. It is little surprise then that the political issue top of his mind when he votes on May 20, is the ostensible lack of employment.
“I will vote for a party, which can give me employment,” Kumar said. For Kumar, what this means, is a leaning towards the RJD and former deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav, who has made employment one of the central motifs of the opposition campaign.
Right next to him however, his father Suresh Das, is almost irate in his opposition, playfully threatening to throw him out of the house if he does not vote for Prime Minister Modi. “A vote for Chirag Paswan(the Lok Janshakti Party-Ram Vilas candidate from Hajipur) is a vote for Modi,” Suresh said.
It is between these two poles that Hajipur will vote in the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha elections. The seat is significant because it was once home to Ram Vilas Paswan, former union minister and LJP president, who’s death in 2020 brought a internal struggle within both party and family. There was a split, and while Pasupati Paras, Ram Vilas Paswan’s brother is the sitting MP from Hajipur, the seat has now been given to Chirag Paswan, who heads the LJP(RV) faction of the party.
But even as there is sympathy for Chirag Paswan in several quarters, there are also those like Gunjan Kumar that articulate criticism.
“He (Chirag) has done nothing for us or the constituency. He is simply carrying the goodwill and legacy of his father the late Ram Vilas Paswan. Chirag is yet to visit any house in Hajipur, let alone rural areas. He is either addressing public rallies or flying around in a helicopter,” Gunjan Kumar said.
Vikas Anand, a Hajipur based journalist, said that despite its proximity to Patna, the town is still bereft of development, suffering from dilapidated roads, waterlogging, and faulty drainage and sewage networks. “Other than a district hospital, not much has been achieved in the health and education sector. For any medical exigency, people still prefer going to Patna,” Anand said.
Anand however said that despite this, the memory of Paswan, and Prime Minister’s popularity could still make a difference for Chirag Paswan.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi remains the sole point of certitude in the NDA. Paswan’s son Chirag is being seen as close to Modi, and people expect him to get a cabinet berth if the NDA returns to power. That may influence their choice, especially after the PM heaped lavish praise on Chirag during an election rally in Hajipur on May 13,” he said.
In Hajipur’s Lalganj block, Pushpendra Kumar, an employee at the RBS collage said, “People have seen Modi’s development. He has given free ration and gas connection to the poor... the Beti Bachao Beti Badhao campaign is successful and most importantly the country is safe.”
But some political leaders said that Paswan has challenges ahead, including from within. While former union minister Pashupati Paras, who’s faction was not given a seat in the alliance, continues to be in the NDA, there are murmurs of discomfiture. Ravindra Singh, former state organisation secretary of the LJP(RV) who resigned on April 3 in protest against the distribution of tickets to outsiders said, “Chirah is a two time MP from Jamui, and is contesting Hajipur for the first time, ignoring his uncle who defeated the RJD’s Shiv Chandra Ram. Chirag has never stayed in Hajipur and does not have a house here. Ram, who is fighting the election again, is a local from Mahua.”
Awadhesh Singh of the LJP(RV), refuted the allegation. “Chirag is the son of the soil. Though Chirag has stayed here occasionally, he will start spending more time once he becomes an MP,” said Singh.
No cakewalk for Chirag in Hajipur amid silent Paras play
At Hajipur’s masjid chowk, the argument between father and son will rage for the next three days. Gunjan Kumar though, on his way out of the house, has a word of advice for his father. “There could be a surprise,” he said.
