The most interesting aspect of the recently held Lok Sabha election in Bihar is that seven out of the nine seats won by the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) constituents fall on the either side of river Sone (and its canals) in the south-western part of the state. In fact, all the four victorious candidates of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) come from here. Not only that, six constituencies in which the INDIA bloc has won, went to polls in the seventh and the last phase on June 1.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
It is this fertile region which witnessed Green Revolution in 1970s and is known for the bloody struggle between ultra-Left outfits and various upper castes groups such as Ranvir Sena, Sarvana Liberation Army, Sunlight Sena etc. in the last three decades of the 20th century. These groups have now grown quite weak.
It is in this pocket of Patna, Shahabad and part of Magadh divisions that Swami Sahajanand Saraswati launched his Bihar Pradesh Kisan Sabha in 1920s and 1930s. Triveni Sangh, a combination of three backward castes Yadavs, Kurmis and Koeris or Kushwahas came into being and was quite active between two World Wars.
In that way the entire region had a history of struggle against feudalism, though it is also a fact that these half a dozen districts are known as the food basket of Bihar.
As Patna and Gaya districts fall within this region, it remained a power centre of the state since ancient period. The battle of ideas and battle for empire building were fought in these clusters of districts Bhojpur and Buxar, along with Ghazipur in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh are the main army, para-military and police producing places. The Agnipath scheme had its impact on this pocket as well as in Saran and Siwan districts which fall north to Ganga.
Battles of Buxar
The Battle of Buxar (1764) and the Battle of Chausa (1539) in the same district changed the medieval and modern history of India.
The electoral battle of Buxar was this time won by Sudhakar Singh of the RJD, who defeated the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) Mithilesh Tiwary, who was brought from Gopalganj district and made the candidate. In the last Lok Sabha, Buxar was represented by the then union minister of state for health, Ashwini Chaubey, who was for reason best known to the top brass of the BJP denied ticket.
Also read: RJD’s Poll Debacle in Bihar Reflects Fissures Within its Muslim-Yadav Support Base
As Chaubey is from a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) background and was a much senior politician than Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Amit Shah, the humiliation meted out to him did not go down well within the saffron brigade. It is said that it is on their insistence that Anand Mishra, retired IPS officer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre threw his hat in the ring as an Independent. He jeopardised the prospect of the official BJP nominee.
Needs to be reminded that Shahnai maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan was originally from Dumraon in Buxar district and ‘poll-strategist’ Prashant Kishor, who always sings a different tune, had spent years as his parent had settled here.
East to Buxar is Ara parliamentary constituency, where union minister Raj Kumar Singh, lost to Sudama Prasad of Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation (CPI ML (Liberation)) by 59,808 votes. This was a shocking defeat for Singh, who as the district magistrate of Samastipur was on October 23, 1990 ordered by the then Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav to arrest BJP supremo Lal Krishna Advani who was leading Somnath to Ayodhya Yatra.
Curiously, the credit for coining “Saffron Terror” goes to him when he was the home secretary of India.
Surprisingly, Singh joined the BJP just after retirement in December 2013. Political observers then felt that he took this timely move as he had read the dividing line between Modi and Advani. He was rewarded with a BJP ticket and after winning from Ara in May 2014 and became the union minister.
Pataliputra battle
Just across river Sone from Ara is Pataliputra, the name which evokes historical sentiment, where the battle for Yadav supremacy was at last won by Misa Bharti, who trounced sitting BJP MP Ram Kripal Yadav, once a self-proclaimed Hanuman of her father Lalu Prasad.
South to Pataliputra is Karakat where too CPI ML (Liberation) candidate, Raja Ram Singh registered a victory. Here Independent candidate and Bhojpuri singer Pawan Singh, ended up runners up, pushing Upendra Kushwaha of Rashtriya Lok Morcha, an NDA constituent to the third spot.
Also read: Door-to-Door Campaigning, Local Caste Equations Fuel CPI (ML) Liberation’s Victory in Bihar
There is no dearth of political commentators who see the hand of state BJP chief, Samrat Chaudhary, in his defeat. As both belonged to Kushwaha caste Pawan Singh, a Rajput, was reportedly fielded by a section of the BJP. Pawan was expelled from the saffron party just a week before the final phase of polling.
Chittorgarh of East
Further south-east to Karakat is Aurangabad, where RJD’s Abhay Kushwaha defeated sitting BJP MP, Susheel Singh. Aurangabad is the hometown of first Bihar deputy chief minister Anugrah Narain Singh and his son, Satyendra Singh, who was the chief minister of the state at the time of infamous Bhagalpur riots of 1989. This is for the first time that a non-Rajput had won Lok Sabha election here since 1952.
It is because of political domination of Rajputs that Aurangabad is considered as the Chittorgarh of East.
West to Aurangabad is Sasaram SC reserved seat from where Congress party’s Manoj Kumar defeated BJP’s Shivesh Kumar. Sasaram was represented by Jagjivan Ram, between 1952 and 1980. Ram, a Dalit, was the youngest minister in the first Jawaharlal Nehru cabinet and was reportedly inducted by him to counter balance B.R. Ambedkar. Ram held important portfolio in all the cabinets till 1979.
Later Sasaram was repeatedly won by his daughter, Meira Kumar, IFS, who rose to become the Speaker of India.
Incidentally, her son Anshul Abhijit was the Congress candidate from Patna Sahab, which former union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad of the BJP won. Sasaram has often been in the news for communal tension as the tomb of Sher Shah, the ruler of Delhi between 1540-45 has been encroached by anti-social elements enjoying the backing of the saffron party. Former BJP MLA Jawahar Prasad is accused by local Muslims of supporting them.
During the Ram Navami procession in 2023, Sasaram too was rocked by communal violence. The town witnessed Hindu-Muslim riots in late 1980s as well.
And between Gaya and Patna lies Jehanabad, the district which witnessed some of the worst bloodbath during the struggles between the private armies of affluent farmers and various Red Squads. RJD’s Surinder Yadav snatched back the seat from the sitting Janata Dal (United) MP, Chandeshwar Prasad Chandravanshi.
It needs to be recalled that the RJD and its alliance partners performed much better in this very region in the assembly election held in 2020. The entire region lies between river Ganga and Shah-Rahe-Azam (Grand Trunk Road) constructed during the reign of Sher Shah. At the same time Howrah-Delhi Grand Chord, which passes through Gaya and Howrah-Delhi Main Line which crosses through Patna also contribute to the high mobility level in the entire region. Mind it, river Ganga was used for transportation and movement in the past.
When the Naxalite movement was brutally crushed in West Bengal in the early 1970s many of its hard-core cadres fled and took shelter in this part of Bihar. They took the same rail and road routes and thus re-grouped themselves.
Soroor Ahmed is a Patna-based freelance journalist.
Read all of The Wire’s reporting on and analysis of the 2024 election results here.
