Yogendra Yadav, president of Swaraj India, campaigned on Thursday for Yogendra Yadav in Jharkhand’s Chatra. The psephologist-cum-politician urged people in the Naxal-affected constituency to “vote for honesty and sincerity” as he canvassed for a 26-year-old Independent candidate, an advocate and a namesake.
Mr. Yadav said voters had good reasons to back advocate Yadav. While the major parties had not been able to choose a single local candidate from a population of 15 lakh, advocate Yadav was not only “one among them” but had also known poverty, he said.
The Swaraj India leader averred that the young lawyer had opted to come back to his village to “change things” instead of seeking money and fame in a city. “ Ek vote sachaie ko dijiye, ek vote imandaari ko dijiye (give one vote for honesty, and one for sincerity),” Mr. Yadav exhorted.
The Independent candidate said he wants to show youngsters that they too can dream big with education.
Hard days
Born to a construction worker in the village of Pitiz, 25 km from Chatra, the younger Mr. Yadav said he had seen hard days, having worked as a domestic help for two years at the age of eight. Later, he won himself a scholarship from the ‘Increasing Diversity by Increasing Access to Legal Education’ trust, which provides underprivileged children access to quality legal education.
After obtaining a law degree from the National University of Study and Research in Law, Ranchi, he interned with the Mumbai-based law firm J. Sagar Associates for a few months in 2015 and again in 2016. Some lawyers from the firm have contributed to his campaign in their personal capacities, besides helping raise funds for him. The young lawyer said candidates typically come to a constituency just before the elections, file their nominations and, because they represent national parties, go on to win. “They don’t bother thereafter,” he noted.
Mr. Yadav is pitted against BJP incumbent Sunil Singh and the Congress’s Manoj Yadav. Chatra also elected an Independent, Inder Singh Namdhari, in 2009. “A united, progressive and communal tension-free India, where every individual has the right to have his own ideas, opinions and thoughts” was his dream, said the young Mr. Yadav.
