Sheohar strongman may power his path to be CM

This is a true story. A couple of months before the Lok Sabha elections, a few police officials from Sheohar met Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad with a plea: he must rein in MP from Sheohar, Anwar ul Haq.

Haq, who has a lucrative "import and export" business from Bihar to Nepal and onwards was becoming a problem. One of his contacts had been arrested and Anwar ul Haq had simply ambushed the police party and lifted his contact out of the cordon and spirited him away. This could not be tolerated, they said.

Lalu was sympathetic. A few days later, he issued a statement to an important national daily that people like Haq were not letting the government down and were behaving like "ISI agents".

The following day Haq issued a statement exhorting Muslims to note that their supposed messiah (Lalu) was calling one among them an "ISI agent". He asked to rise against this slur.

Uncharacteristically, Lalu said he had been misquoted. But the net result was that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nominated Haq for the Sheohar Lok Sabha seat. He lost the election.

In the interim, the Bihar government decided it would go after Anwar ul Haq. A prominent Customs superintendent was sent to Sheohar and he showed results instantly.

A few days later, the official was kidnapped. Those who saw the kidnapping say that "some people bodily lifted" the official and carried him away from his office.

The district police was at its wits' end. The Centre was putting pressure to secure the release of the official. Finally, they went to Anwar ul Haq's house.

An eyewitness says he saw a superintendent of police (SP) lay his cap at Anwar ul Haq's feet and pleaded: "Please return the official to us."

"How can I," said Haq with righteous indignation. "He is ruining my business". Finally, the deal that was struck was: the Customs superintendent would give in writing that he was never kidnapped, that he went to Haq's house of his own free will, he would be returned and the case would be closed.

The SP went home, the Customs superintendent left for Delhi and peace and quiet returned to Sheohar again.

Now the same Haq is contesting the Assembly elections on a nomination provided by Ramvilas Paswan's Lok Jana-shakti Party (LJP).

Yesterday, he told the local newspapers that Paswan had promised him the chief ministership of Bihar. Paswan no doubt thinks this will deepen his acceptability among Muslims who are poised to move away from Lalu and vote for him.

If that happens, Anwar ul Haq might indeed, become chief minister of Bihar.