Jobs, development, and revival of closed industries are the key demands of the people of Bihar’s Samastipur Lok Sabha constituency, who will vote in the fourth phase on May 13.
The Lok Sabha seat has been drawing interest since the children of two State Ministers of the ruling Janata Dal (United) are pitted against each other. Shambhavi Kunal Choudhary is daughter of Rural Works Minister Ashok Choudhary while Sunny Hazari is son of Information and Public Relation Minister Maheswar Hazari.
The 25-year-old Ms. Choudhary is contesting on a Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) ticket while 33-year-old Mr. Hazari is the Congress candidate.
On May 5, Prime Minister Narendra Modi while addressing a public meeting in Darbhanga said Ms. Choudhary is the youngest Lok Sabha candidate of the country and called her his daughter. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and her father Mr. Ashok Choudhary are campaigning in her support but her opponent Mr. Hazari, being a Congressman, is at a disadvantage here since his father cannot campaign for him.
The Samastipur Lok Sabha seat has six Assembly segments namely Kusheshwar Asthan, Hayaghat, Kalyanpur, Warisnagar, Samastipur and Rosera.
The main issue of the constituency is the lack of employment opportunities and industry. The Rameshwar Jute Mill in Musepur village under Kalyanpur Assembly segment, the lone industrial unit in Samastipur, has been struggling without adequate support from the government. The mill was shut down over wage issues for over three years before it started functioning in 2020.
“The jute mill was started by Darbhanga Raj in 1934 and named after Darbhanga Maharaj Rameshwar Singh and presently occupied by Prateek Choraria. It is the only active industrial unit here but we do not get any support from the government. We use 10,000 units of electricity every day and we don’t get any subsidy on it. Though spread over 55 acres of land, we only use 25 acres for the production of jute,” Abhishek Sharma, commercial manager of Rameshwar Jute Mill, told The Hindu.
The mill gets orders from several States through the Jute Corporation of India (JCI) and current production is 30 tonnes per day with an annual turnover of ₹80 crore. At present 2,000 families depend on the mill. “We would have given jobs to more workers because we have the capacity to produce up to 80 tonnes. But we hardly get any support from the government. The jute reaches here from Assam and Bangladesh apart from other States. Despite being the only such facility in the Lok Sabha constituency, the local MP and MLA have done nothing for us. In fact, often, their speeches have created trouble for us and among the workers,” Mr. Sharma said.
Samastipur also had a sugar mill but it closed in 1997 during the regime of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) government. It has been more than 26 years but the sprawling campus of the mill spread over 20 acres of land still lies unused. A signboard on the abandoned mill that reads, “Bihar Sugar Corporation Limited - Samastipur Unit; established in 1917”, is perhaps symbolic of the lost industrial potential of the region.
“The mill started production in 1921 with 8,000 quintals a day. The sugar made here was sent to many States, it gave jobs to more than 2,000 workers, and nearly 10,000 farmers benefitted. Now, the government has given this land to Kolkata-based company Winsome International Ltd. on lease for 60 years,” says Bablu Kumar, who runs a garment shop near the premises.
Similarly, no effort has been taken to revive the Thakur Paper Mill located in Jitwarpur, rue the voters. This mill shut down in 1979.
Voters now recall the good old days and are waiting for the right leader to revive the lost glory of the constituency which was first represented by former Union Minister and Congress leader late Satya Narayan Sinha. He occupied the seat till 1967.
Rivers like Kosi, Ganga, Bagmati, Kamla-Balan and Budi Gandak run through the Samastipur district which is also known as the entrance to Mithilanchal region. It is an agricultural region producing large quantities of vegetables and spices.
“This region has everything except job opportunities and a large number of people migrate from this region in search of jobs. No matter who becomes the MP, they hardly pay attention to this consistency. This time, both are young candidates, let’s see how the winner performs,” said Sashibhusan Prasad, an elderly resident of Mohanpur.
Ravi Paswan, a resident of Magardahi said, ”Traffic is a major issue in the town apart from waterlogging during monsoon. The long-pending demand of rail overbridge [ROB] from Bhola Talkies to Muktipur Gumti has still not been fulfilled, and there has been no construction of bypasses in Rosera to ease traffic woes.”
While speaking to The Hindu, Ms. Choudhary said, “My first priority would be the revival of closed industries and bringing in more industries and creating job opportunities.”
Mr. Hazari is echoing the same sentiment but only time will tell who gets the opportunity to serve this parliamentary constituency which was once represented by socialist leader Karpoori Thakur from the Janata Party (JP). Mr. Thakur, an iconic leader of Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs), was recently conferred the Bharat Ratna, the country’s highest civilian decoration by the Centre.
The seat is currently represented by Prince Raj, son of late Ram Chandra Paswan, the younger brother of late Ram Vilas Paswan.
