If development is the agenda of Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) in this state, caste equations are Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) boss Lalu Prasad Yadav’s old area of strength. In the Hindi-heartland of Bihar, comprising 40 Lok Sabha seats, the Left parties are struggling to find their own ground against these odds.
For the first time, the CPI(M) and the CPI have joined hands with the radical CPI (Marxist-Leninist) forces to fight elections in Bihar. Altogether they have put 33 candidates with the local CPI(ML) taking the lion’s share. Although the “Maaley” (the nickname for CPI(ML)) has many ideological differences with the other two communist parties, in the time of election, they have found common ground for the coalition.
In front of a veterinary clinic at Patouri village, the CPI(M) candidate for Ujiarpur seat, Ramdeb Verma, pleads to a thin gathering of 27 people: “Whoever goes to Delhi and Patna forget about the plight of the farmers. You go to (polling) booth in the name of the caste. That is why poor people are suffering for the last 61 years.” After half an hour, he speaks at Chandanpur: “This will be a verdict for Delhi. Caste doesn’t work there. The government’s decision influences prices of diesel, wheat and medicines. If these prices go up, not just the upper caste but all people will suffer. For a day, please liberate yourself from caste identity.”
In his party office, which suffers from frequent power cuts, at Begusarai, local CPI candidate Shatrughan Pratap Singh explains how they are trying to get votes from all sections of the society as there is no specific vote-bank for the CPI. His political bosses in Delhi talk about the Indo-US nuclear deal and the economy as the main poll planks in their speeches, but Singh, a former Lok Sabha MP, is clear that a host of local issues “will dominate the general election in Begusarai”. “Nitish Kumar hasn’t done anything for Begusarai. He didn’t allow a railway factory at Barauni. 2,000 acres of railway land is lying idle here, but he and Lalu took away all railway projects to their area,” Singh says.
After the Babri Masjid demolition, the Left parties had rallied behind Lalu Prasad in Bihar to achieve their larger ambition of uniting the secular forces against the rise of the BJP. “But our 15-year stint with Prasad has terribly damaged our vote bank in Bihar. Initially, Lalu was fine. But then he started anti-Left activities,” Subodh Ray, CPI(M)’s Central Committee member and candidate from Bhagalpur, tells this correspondent while campaigning at the local government offices.
In the last Lok Sabha election, Lalu Prasad had given one seat each to the CPI(M) and the CPI but then fielded Independent candidates to defeat them. A furious CPI(M) local leadership wanted to break away from Prasad long ago. But finally, after withdrawing from the UPA government over the Indo-US nuclear deal, Prakash Karat and others decided to dump Prasad too and tried to rebuild their base in Bihar.
In 1977, at the Salkia conclave, the CPI(M) had decided to expand its base in the Hindi belt. But after 32 years, the party and other Left forces are still struggling in their efforts. Now, in the run-up to the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, the local Maaley leaders claim: “There is a wave in favour of Leftist movement in Bihar. In many seats, we will be the main opponents of the JD(U) or RJD.”
The Left is comfortable in class struggle — to view poor only as poor. But as Bihar politics is divided on caste lines, the Left is desperately trying to break the shackle and point out that poverty has no caste-lines.
“Earlier, only Tatas and Birlas were billionaires. Now even MPs and MLAs are billionaires. Other leaders are flying in helicopters. Our leader Prakash Karat will come here by train. I want to know, from where these leaders get so much money?” Ramdeb Verma tells his crowd. In Begusarai, CPI’s Shatrughan Pratap Singh claims: “People are fed up with caste politics. They see an alternative in Left.”
The Left has vowed to fight against the Congress. But in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections in Bihar, both the Left and the Congress are on a similar platform — trying to rebuild their brand out of the showcase of one Lalu Prasad Yadav.
