Siwan, Bihar: On Saturday, the chief ministerial candidate of the grand alliance and Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav arrived in Siwan to campaign in support of sitting Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) MLA Satyadev Ram at Gahilapur Darauli assembly constituency.
On the road from Siwan to Andar, a number of young men were riding bikes and sporting green flags and turbans. Further ahead, people on bikes and tempos were waving green flags.
In Hussainganj, a huge crowd had gathered at the grand alliance office. Supporters were waving red (CPI-ML) and green (RJD) flags and heading out of the office in groups towards the venue where the grand alliance’s proclaimed leader, Tejashwi Yadav, and the chief ministerial candidate, was to address a rally.
Yadav addressed three public meetings at Daronda, Raghunathpur and Gahilapur in Siwan. Gahilapur falls under the Darauli (reserved) assembly constituency where the sitting MLA Satyadev Ram is contesting on behalf of the Grand Alliance.
In the previous elections, Satyadev Ram had garnered 49,576 votes and defeated the BJP candidate Ramayan Manjhi by 9,584 votes. Manjhi had received 39,850 votes while the RJD candidate got 37,201 votes.
Swarms of people were approaching the venue, in tractors singing songs.
In Asaon as well, people were singing and dancing on the way to the rally. Half a dozen people were at the intersection on horsebacks wearing red turbans. On every road, groups of people could be seen walking towards the public meeting venue.
On the grounds of Gahilapur school, to the left of the main road which leads to Asaon, a stage had been erected for Tejashwi Yadav next to the school building.
By noon, the marquee was full. A helipad had been built at the far end of the stage and was bulwarked by bamboo poles on all four sides.
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A corridor had been set up leading from the helipad to the stage. As people gathered around the helipad, an announcement was made: “Our Tejashwiji will be arriving in about an hour. Please, do not keep standing. Do not gather near the helipad.”
On the stage, Bhojpuri folk singer, Shyamsunder Yadav was performing traditional biraha hymns. He started the performance with a prelude to the vandana, or devotional song, explaining what devotion meant and who was considered a devotee. Through his song, he introduced his guru, and glorified him.
In between his performance, he took a dig at the BJP and the JDU. “During the past eight or ten months, wherever I have been to perform the biraha songs and asked people if they would vote for Modi, women tell me, ‘He is a big liar. He had promised to give Rs 15 lakh to everyone. If we come across any members of his party, we would beat them up,’” Yadav said.
Before the next performance, Shyamsunder explained that a popular Bhojpuri song had been modified to fit the occasion. The ballad extolled Satyadev Ram, and how his support would help Tejashwi Yadav become the chief minister.
Every now and then, people approach the stage and offer cash notes of Rs 100 or Rs 500 to Shyamasundar.
The entire meeting venue looked like a grand local fair. The field in front of the school ground was covered with parked bikes and bicycles. People continued to pour in, many of whom were carrying children on their shoulders.
Towards the back of the canopy, sugarcane juice, samosas, pakoras, and other eatables were being sold on carts. At one stall, a child was eating phophi, a local delicacy, along with his father.
The stall for sugarcane juice was the most heavily crowded, with the price of one glass being set at Rs 10. Meanwhile, people continued to arrive on tractors. Many people proceeded to welcome them from the canopy.
Soon, another group of six horsemen from Asaon also reached the meeting. They were galloping on their horses holding red flags in a huge circle on the left side of the platform. Soon, people gathered around them to watch their antics.
For half an hour, the horsemen put on a show of their horse-riding skills after which they moved to the garden on the right side near the platform. In the garden, over 400 people were sitting on the ground and chatting. The rest of them were listening to public representatives delivering speeches from the stage.
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Meanwhile, Shyamsunder was performing the last song on the dais – an adaptation from another popular Bhojpuri song, in which he eulogised Lalu Yadav and Tejashwi Yadav, and hailed the Grand Alliance while urging people to press the symbol of Three Stars, representing the CPI-ML candidate, Satyadev Ram.
At one o’clock, Satyadev Ram and member of CPI-ML’s Polit Bureau, Dhirendra Jha, reached the dais. The leaders of the RJD, Inquilabi Naujawan Sabha, AIPWA as well as other local leaders were already on the stage.
The meeting began with the CPI-ML candidate detailing the development work carried out during his tenure in the assembly constituency. He spoke of the incident when migrant labourers were stopped and refused entry at the Uttar Pradesh-Bihar during the lockdown and how his party stood against the injustice and for the rights of the labourers.
In their speeches, the RJD leaders announced that more development would be undertaken in the area once the Grand Alliance formed the government.
A few people in the garden were discussing the poll arithmetic. “Satyadev Ram won the elections singlehandedly with 50,000 votes last time,” one of them said. “Now, the RJD is with him.”
“He will get more than one lakh votes this time,” claimed another confidently. “The victory margin will be 25,000.”
At around half-past two, Dhirendra Jha began his speech and said, “PM Modi refers to the RJD rule in Bihar as ‘jungle raj’. Why doesn’t he take a look at UP where incidents like Hathras and Unnao gangrape are taking place? What would he call it?”
As the speech concluded, the whirring of a chopper was overhead. The crowd rushed towards the helipad as Tejashwi Yadav disembarked the helicopter and shook hands, greeted everyone and strode towards the stage through the corridor.
Upon reaching the dais, he took the mike, and began his speech. “This is not an election but a movement against unemployment. Isn’t unemployment our biggest enemy or not? So many of us have degrees, attended coaching, prepared for competitive exams, and what not. But no one got a job. The issues are education, medication, vocation and irrigation. Nitish Kumar has ruined everything. A scam worth Rs 30,000 crore is being carried out in Bihar. There is a scandal in various schemes of the Saat Nishchay Programme, including piped supply of water.”
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“We are here to expose the truth, and talk about real issues,” he added. “People of Siwan and Gopalganj are forced to migrate for everything including, livelihood, healthcare as well as studies. One has to travel to Chhapra for higher education. There is not a single degree college in the district. We have a new way of thinking and want to build a new Bihar. We will take everyone along. No one will be left behind.”
“We will sanction 10 lakh jobs at once in the first meeting of the cabinet. Four and a half lakh posts are lying vacant. We will fill up the existing vacancies and then, 5.5 lakh more appointments will be made, according to the national average. The budget allocated for Bihar is Rs 2.13 lakh crores. At present, only 60% is being spent. 40%, that is Rs 80,000 crore, is not spent at all. There is no dearth of money in Bihar. But the current government lacks determination,” Yadav said.
A mention of 10 lakh jobs was met with cheers and applause while slogans were raised once again.
Next, Yadav raised the issue of rising onion and potato prices. “Onion has hit a century while potatoes are at half-century,” he said. “The BJP leaders and Nitish Kumar are tongue-tied now and have no words to utter. Earlier, if the onion prices touched 50, they would wear onion garlands and complain about inflation. Why are they not wearing such garlands now?”
Yadav’s comments on inflation and price-rise invited another loud cheer from the crowd.
The speech continued for about ten minutes. After highlighting the points in the election manifesto of the Grand Alliance, Yadav said, “The NDA has deployed 30 helicopters behind me but I have managed to make my helicopter into a tractor. Today, I have to address 17 meetings. Who has held the most rallies in a single day? Lalu ji. He addressed 16 rallies in one day. Two days ago, I addressed 16 rallies too. Today, there are 17. We are original Biharis, stronger than anyone because the people are with us.”
Finally, invoking a response from the public he said, “We are set to form the government. Can we have faith in you? Should we garland Satyadev ji? Are you sure?”
After garlanding Satyadev Rama, Yadav got off the stage.
People ran towards the helipad, clicking pictures and recording videos on mobile phones and waved as the helicopter took off.
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The carts were all empty by now and all the items had been sold. Shyam Bahadur Gond made Rs 1,800 selling sugarcane juice on Saturday itself. His face was brimming with happiness. “I had a great sale today. All the sugarcane we brought has been sold. I had to order another batch from home,” he said.
People taking photographs of Tejashwi Yadav’s helicopter. Photo: Manoj Singh
A resident of the neighbouring Asaon village, Shyam Bahadur had been selling sugarcane juice for the last 15 days. Earlier, he used to work in Ghaziabad as a labourer. He returned home during the lockdown and has been without work since then.
He has four brothers who only have four kattas of land between them. “I sat idly for a long time,” he said. “One day I met a sugarcane juice seller and learnt the process. Then, I took a sugarcane juicer on lease for Rs 75,000. After one year, I will get the possession of the machine. Then, I will be able to save more money.”
He gets sugarcane from Bhatpar Rani in UP because sugarcane cultivation in the area is negligible now. The cost of purchasing a quintal of sugarcane and transporting it to Asaon is about Rs 400.
He brings three to four quintals of sugarcane in one trip. One quintal sugarcane produces 120 to 140 glasses of juice. Since one glass is sold for Rs 10, he earns Rs 1,200 to 1,400. The profit on one quintal is nearly Rs 800.
Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai, addressed a public rally here a few days ago. “I had sold only 70 glasses of sugarcane juice that day,” said Shyam Bahadur. “Very few people had turned up. He had praised the party as the most popular and said they were going to form the government.”
As the day’s events came to an end, people started to return to their homes. Between Gahilapur and Darauli, two young men crossing the river continued to wave red flags.
Translated from the Hindi original by Naushin Rehman.
Manoj Singh is the editor of Gorakhpur Newsline.