 "Nitish Kumar's model village has pockets of discontent")
Well-connected to the four-lane highway NH-30, a wide road leads into the village with trees from the forest department lining the sides; an odd sight in a state where villages have mud tracks by way of streets. Villagers say during the RJD years, the area was in shambles and things changed only after Nitish became CM. Signs of development - i.e., a new hospital, a dispensary just at the entrance to the village (the doctor visits daily but medicines are in short supply), a high school and even an ITI are present in this model village. The latest addition to this rural landscape is a shooting range operating from a temporary site.
Sitaram, who proudly gives visitors a tour of Nitish's humble dwelling, says that the CM comes regularly to pay his respects on the death anniversaries of his parents and his wife and has even, built a small park as a memorial for them. Village elders fondly talk of the chief minister as "one of their own" and predict a thumping majority for him.
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Kalyan Bigha has often been compared to Mulayam Singh Yadav's own village Saifai where even Bollywood film stars have descended, but Nitish's village has still a long way to go to reach Saifai's standards.
The village may be a 'showcase' of development but several in the working age group are discontent with no facilities being created for employment generation. "The ones who were benefited most by all this were the contractors who minted money with all this construction. Even the ITI and shooting range are frequented by people from outside," says Birin Singh, a daily wage labourer.
"The district magistrate regularly drops in at the CM's home but has no time for us." Nonetheless, he says, they will be supporting the JD(U) candidate Hari Narayan Singh (the sitting MLA) "because Nitish Kumar is from here." A few like farm labourer Ashok Ram are questioning JD(U)'s tie-up with Lalu Prasad but says they can do little to stop it.
Incidentally, the houses in Kalyan Bigha do not have toilets with villagers alleging that the grants received from Indira Vikas Yojana were not enough to build one. Open defecation is still the norm. The dominant caste here are the Kurmis, (they comprise four per cent of Bihar's population) the same as that of the chief minister. Barely a stone's throw away, the road narrows down and dwellings are more cramped, the area being home to 200 odd families of Musahars. The mention of Nitish Kumar's name evokes a wall of silence from the residents here. Resentment is high with "Musahar neta Jitin Ram Manjhi" (their leader) being "humiliated" by Nitish Kumar. "One day we heard he (Manjhi) had become chief minister and next we hear he has been thrown out. Aisa koi karta hai, yeh sahi nahi hua (Does anyone treat another in this manner? This was not right)," says Munki Devi assertively. The inhabitants here allege they have not received employment through MNREGS.
A more vocal Sudama Kumar questions why this cluster is deprived of a street exiting onto the village main road unlike other areas of this village. There are about 735 votes in this Musahar cluster, he informs; those are certainly not headed Nitish Kumar's way. However, Jitin Ram Manjhi's HAM party has no candidate in Harnaut, the Assembly seat, so many among them would be opting for LJP's Arun Bind, however, the hindrance being that "Arun Bind is an outsider, not from the village."
Near the fields on the outskirts of the village, Nitish Kumar had inaugurated a temple and its adjoining pond to cater to the locals for the Chhath Puja. Mangal Ram, a cattle herder belonging to the Chandravanshis concedes that the CM has done a lot for the village but is unhappy with his joining forces with Lalu Yadav, fearing a return of Yadav goondaraj. Karu Yadav, his friend disagrees. Lashing out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP's face in these polls, Yadav asks, "Where is the promised achhe din? First, onion prices and now dal prices have spiralled out of our reach."
"Dal-chawal aam aadmi ka khana hota tha, ab woh bhi nahi kha sakte." (Dal and rice used to be the staple food of the common man, now we can't afford that.) Rakesh Kumar, a student of the neighbouring RPS College passing by this motley group, gets off his cycle to join the discussion. He insists that the mahagathbandhan has to win at all costs. "Modi is only busy with his foreign tours. Where does he have time for governance?" asks Rakesh.
Interestingly, what endears Nitish Kumar to the locals is the fact that Nitish does not boast of his achievements even here in his village. "He has never given any speeches here despite all the work he has done in the village. He is a mature leader quite unlike our prime minister who just does not rein in his bluster," adds Yadav.
The villagers here in Kalyan Bigha are critical of Nitish Kumar but aver they will forgive his transgressions as mistakes committed by one of their own.