It’s 9.15 a.m. and the summer sun has already planted its scorching rays on the first-floor verandah of the residence of former Union Minister and senior Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Raghuvansh Prasad Singh.
Mr. Singh, a five-time former MP from the Vaishali Lok Sabha constituency, lives in Sriram Nagar locality behind police lines in neighbouring Muzaffarpur district. Clad in a cotton lungi , he is sitting on a plastic chair and having chana-gur (soaked grams and jaggery) as breakfast. In a corner room, some party leaders, workers and people from academia are sitting on sofas, while several others are waiting for him on the ground floor and outside the main gate.
Known for his straight words and simplicity, Mr. Singh is also popular as “Brahma baba (a man who speaks the truth)” in his constituency.
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2014 defeat
In 2014 Lok Sabha election, Mr. Singh lost to Lok Janshakti Party’s Rama Kishore Singh, a gangster-turned-politician, in what he says was “Modi wave”. This time, the LJP has dropped its sitting MP and fielded Veena Devi, wife of Janata Dal (United) MLC Dinesh Singh, “a man with money and muscle power”.
Both Mr. Singh and Ms. Devi come from upper caste Rajput community and hope to get a larger share of votes from their dominant caste. But this time in Vaishali, there is more to caste mathematics and calculations. It is Mr. Singh’s persona which makes him popular among the voters. People across caste lines seem to be regretting his defeat in the last poll and many believe “Vaishali lost its voice in Parliament in last five years”.
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“In an election rally in Muzaffarpur recently, Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi appealed to people to vote for a good, non-corrupt person. Had Modi been a voter of my constituency, even he would have voted for me…wouldn’t he?” asks Mr. Singh as he readies for his campaign, dressed in a white kurta, dhoti and a Nehru jacket.
Asked about Mr. Modi’s poll narrative changing in the last two phase of campaign — from nationalism and air strike in Pakistan to calling former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi a corrupt man, Mr. Singh says: “A Prime Minister should not stoop so low. This has never happened in our Indian culture. This is not what a PM should say.”
Lalu’s absence
Does he miss the presence of RJD chief Lalu Prasad in poll campaigning for the Mahagathbandhan? “Oh, yes, he is the only mass leader of the State and people have sympathy for him.”
“I often wonder why he [Lalu Prasad] is in jail when the other former CM accused in the same case, Dr. Jagannath Mishra, is out on bail? Mishra ko bail, Lalu ko jail, yehi hai Narendra Modi ka khel (Bail to Mishra, jail to Lalu, this is how Narendra Modi plays his game),” he says.
How strong is the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar? “Natural alliance on seats would have been more effective in winning the poll,” he says, adding that on some seats, “mistakes have been made in selection of candidates”.
But, he asserts the next moment, “[PM] Modi will not come to power at the Centre again.”
Asked who, according to him, is a likely PM candidate from the Opposition side, he says: “The leader of the party which gets the maximum number of seats. All smaller parties will have to support it.”
What about Rahul Gandhi? “Why not?...if Congress gets the maximum seats...,” he says, emphatically.
Mr. Singh was appointed the Union Minister of Rural Development in UPA-1 and was widely credited for the implementation of MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act).
Campaign trail
Around 9.45 a.m., Mr. Singh leaves his house in a motorcade of over half a dozen SUVs for yet another day of campaigning. At Jaintpur, he stops at former Congress leader Usha Sinha’s residence and under an old banyan tree in the large compound, he meets about a hundred people over cups of aamjhor (raw mango juice) to beat the heat.
A little later he makes a hurried exit and reaches Karza locality for a roadshow. He ties a cotton scarf on his head, hops onto an open red jeep and starts waving at people crossing the road and standing along both flanks. “ Kaho dil se, Raghuvansh Babu phir se (say again with your heart, once again Raghuvansh Babu),” reads the T-shirt worn by Mohd. Jainuel Ansari, a supporter, over his green kurta.