Soroor Ahmed

When there is so much media-hype over development, in the land of Champaran the candidate(s) or the party which did something in this direction is facing a very tough challenge from those indulging in communal or caste politics.

Film-maker Prakash Jha, who calls himself as the son of the soil, has thrown his hat in the ring for the third time from Paschim Champaran with hope to enter Parliament. Though between 2004 and 2009 he did much for the constitutency political observers feel that he often ends up choosing the wrong party. In 2004 he fought as an Independent and lost. In 2009 he got the ticket from Lok Janshakti Party, which then contested in alliance with the RJD and failed. This time he is fighting on the ticket of Janata Dal (United), which is not in contest in most of the constituencies of the state.

Those who are voting for him or not, all of them recognize that he did something for the people between 2004 and 2009––much more than the sitting BJP MP, Sanjay Jaiswal. He did not make any film during this period and virtually camped here to do some works.

Jha, 61, got a sugar mill and a hospital ward constructed. However, the mill could not come up in spite of the fact that the chief minister, Nitish Kumar, laid its foundation in 2007. Now he has offered to farmers to return the land taken from them or set up some other industry.

He said he could not find collaborators to facilitate the sugar mill and I offered to return the land. But, the landowners refused to take it back. “At present, we have a pisciculture set up on 50 acres of land and are trying to bring some industry on the remaining 250 acres,” Jha was quoted in the media as saying.

He said that despite the mill not coming up, he pays pension to 180 families from whom he took the land.

He also undertook relief and rehabilitation works not only in his own constituency, but also in the Kosi belt after the devastating flood of 2008.

However, when he lost once again in 2009 he left for Mumbai and made five films in the last five years.

But he has a regret. After 2009 election result the supporerts of BJP MP Sanjay Jaiswal ransacked the hospital and pulled down the wires because Prakash Jha was involved in the development work. He said that his men even lodged a case of hooliganism and destruction of facilities at Bettiah hospital but no action was taken in this regard.

The BJP was then a ruling partner in the NDA in Bihar.

Jha claimed that seeing the work he had done for Bettiah hospital, Sugauli, Chanpatia and Motihari officials had also requested him to revive the government hospitals in their respective areas, too.
In spite of this facts, the film director is facing a strong challenge from Sanjay Jaiswal and Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Raghunath Jha, who won in 2004.

While Sanjay is trying to capitalize on the NaMo effect the RJD candidate is banking on the strong presence of Muslims and Yadavs in the constituency.

He has realized that perhaps it is easy to make socio-political films like Gangaajal, Rajneeti and Satyagraha, but really difficult to win election.

The situation in neighbouring Valmikinagar parliamentary constituency is no different. The sitting Janata Dal (United) MP, Baidyanath Mahto, is facing a big challenge from Congress party’s Purnamasi Ram, BJP’s Satish Dubey and Independent Dilip Verma.

Though there is no dearth of people in the constituency, especially in Bhitiharwa village–– where Mahatma Gandhi set up an Ashram and a school––who concede that chief minister Nitish Kumar has done good works yet his party’s candidate may not get enough votes.

The 6,000 voters of this village, almost all of them Dalits, appreciate the work done by Nitish and may most likely vote for him, but the trend is not so in rest of the constituency.

The state government got built a road and has power supply for about 18 hours every day.

Besides, the Paryatan Bhavan (tourist guesthouse) is coming up on the premises of the Ashram. 

A unique aspect of the election in Valmikinagar is that the Congress candidate is Purnamasi Ram, a Dalit fighting on general seat, with the hope of getting some Dalit as well as the traditional Yadav and Muslim votes of the RJD.

But Ram has been exported by the RJD to the Congress party. He was a sitting MP of Janata Dal (United) from Gopalganj, but left the party to join RJD. But as the Congress was short of candidates from Valmikinagar it borrowed one from the RJD.