In Bihar, parivarvaad back in focus as RJD, NDA field kin of politicians

While the RJD has fielded Lalu Prasad’s daughters Misa Bharti and Rohini Acharya, the NDA has presented its own roster of familial contenders.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad (centre) with party leaders Tejashwi Yadav (right) and Tej Pratap (left) during the Jan Vishwas Rally in Patna on March 3. | Photo Credit: PTI

As the first phase of the Lok Sabha election in Bihar draws near, dynasty politics, or “parivarvaad”, has begun resonating in the air. The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), whose face in Bihar is party founder and former Chief Minister Lalu Prasad’s son Tejashwi Yadav, on April 9 released a list of 22 candidates, out of which two got all the attention. Misa Bharti and Rohini Acharya, both daughters of Lalu, were fielded from Pataliputra and Saran respectively.

While voting in Pataliputra will take place in the final phase on June 1, Saran goes to the polls in the fifth phase on May 20. Lalu Prasad represented the Saran Lok Sabha seat (known as Chapra before delimitation in 2008) four times in the past—1977, 1989, 2004, and 2009. Currently, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Rajiv Pratap Rudy is the sitting MP there.

In 2014, when Lalu sought to field his daughter Misa Bharti from the Pataliputra seat, Ram Kripal Yadav, the strongest ticket aspirant from the RJD for the seat, revolted and joined the BJP. He won the seat twice in 2014 and 2019 on the BJP ticket, defeating Bharti by nearly 40,000 votes on both occasions.

Strategic silence on dynasty politics?

While the BJP has repeatedly slammed the RJD for “parivarvaad”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while kicking off his Bihar election campaign from Jamui on April 4, chose to skip the subject of dynasty politics during his nearly 30-minute-long speech. A possible reason was that the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate in Jamui was Arub Bharti of the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), who is the son-in-law of the late Ram Vilas Paswan. The seat was earlier represented by Paswan’s son Chirag Paswan, who decided to contest from his father’s home turf Hajipur, ruling out his uncle and sitting MP Pashupati Kumar Paras. As such, he fielded his brother-in-law in Jamui which goes to the polls during the first phase on April 19 along with Nawada, Gaya, and Aurangabad.

The RJD questioned the silence of Modi over dynasty politics in Jamui and questioned the doublespeak. Even in the adjoining Nawada seat, the BJP has fielded Vivek Thakur, who is the son of Dr C.P. Thakur, a BJP leader from the Vajpayee-Advani era. In Gaya, RJD candidate Kumar Sarvjeet is the son of former Gaya MP Rajesh Kumar.

Addressing a meeting in Jamui, Tejashwi Yadav alleged that all four NDA candidates in the first phase of the general election are the kin of politicians and come under the category of “parivarvaad”. He said the NDA candidate in Gaya, Jitan Ram Manjhi of the Hindustani Awam Morcha, is the father of Santosh Suman, a Minister in the incumbent NDA government in Bihar, whereas the BJP candidate in Aurangabad, Sushil Singh, is the son of former MP Ram Naresh Singh.

Interestingly, although Tejashwi attacked the BJP over dynasty politics, in the same meeting former MLA Ajay Pratap, son of former Minister Narendra Singh, joined the RJD.

Polarised over parivarvaad

At Naubatpur in Pataliputra, Anil Kumar, a resident who belongs to the “atipichchda” (extremely backward) community, said the NDA candidate will find it easy to win the seat as not only did he have dedicated voters due to his personal touch, he will also have the backing of “Modi magic”. He said, “Lalu ji is only promoting his family. Why does not he see leaders other than his beta-beti (sons and daughters)?” Damodar Rai, who runs a hotel, however, has hopes from Tejashwi Yadav. “He is new. He will do something,” he said.

Madhusudan Rai, an advocate at the Patna High Court and vice president of the RJD legal cell, is livid about charges of nepotism in the RJD. He said: “Tell me one party where there is no dynasty. Why single out RJD for that? All candidates of the NDA in the first phase have some or other dynastic connection.”

Notably, the BJP State president and Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary is the son of veteran Bihar leader Shakuni Choudhary, and the State unit vice president and Bihar MLA Nitish Mishra is the son of former Chief Minister Jagannath Mishra.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan during a public rally ahead of the Lok Sabha election, in Bihar’s Jamui on April 4. | Photo Credit: ANI

In March, the RJD had pasted posters in key localities of Patna, naming BJP’s dynast leaders. Addressing the RJD’s Jan Vishwas Maharally (mammoth rally) at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan on March 3, RJD chief Lalu Prasad had said that Modi, who attacks all others for “parivarvaad”, does not have a family or children. Reacting sharply to it, the BJP had launched “Modi Ka Parivar” campaign with all BJP leaders and workers identifying themselves as the family of Modi. The Prime Minister himself chose to attack Lalu over this and said 140 crore Indians are his family.

Earlier in March, addressing an election rally in Begusarai, Modi had said that dynastic politics and social justice are antithetical to each other and rued that Bihar suffered the pangs of “parivarvaad” for decades. “RJD-Congress ki ghor parivarvaadi kuriti hai (There is this bad precedent of acute nepotism in the RJD and the Congress),” Modi had said.

Banking on Lalu’s ties to Saran

But then, “parivarvaad” has its own pitfalls. While Rohini Acharya got a rousing welcome when she visited Saran on April 9, the BJP has latched on to a family dispute in Lalu Prasad’s family to corner her.

In 2022, Acharya, who is married to an engineer and lives in Singapore, donated one of her kidneys to her father, who underwent surgery there. After the operation, Acharya shared an emotional note with the public saying she fulfilled a daughter’s duty and took Lalu out of a deathly situation. RJD supporters in Saran are drumming up her “supreme sacrifice” to garner public sympathy.

Slamming this, Bihar BJP media head Danish Eqbal told Frontline that “this is [akin to] selling a relationship for eliciting political gains”. He also raised the issue of the divorce of Lalu’s elder son Tej Pratap, who was married to Aishwarya Rai, granddaughter of former Bihar Chief Minister and prominent Yadav leader Daroga Prasad Rai. Aishwarya’s father Chandrika Rai was a Minister in the State government and was a six-term MLA.

“Lalu ji has airdropped his daughter Rohini from Singapore in Saran after closing his doors for Aishwarya, the daughter of Saran. People in Saran will remember this,” Eqbal said, batting for the BJP candidate Rajiv Pratap Rudy. Rudy had interestingly defeated Rabri Devi, Lalu’s wife and former Chief Minister, as well as Chandrika Rai in the Lok Sabha elections of 2014 and 2019. In 2009, Lalu had prevailed over Rudy.

Now, by fielding Rohini Acharya from Saran, the RJD hopes to revive Lalu’s ties to the region and wrest the seat from the BJP. Given his past record, the RJD considers it a seat with strong winnability.

Another Lok Sabha seat, Samastipur, will witness a contest between Shambhavi, the daughter of Bihar Minister and Janata Dal (United) leader Ashok Chowdhury, and the Congress’ Sunny Hazari, son of another JD(U) Minister Maheshwar Hazari. Sunny is a third-generation politician from his family. Earlier, the seat was represented by Chirag Paswan’s cousin Prince Raj, who is the son of the late Ramchandra Paswan, Ram Vilas’ younger brother. Meanwhile in Buxar, the RJD has fielded its State chief Jagadanand Singh’s son Sudhakar Singh.

At least 20 candidates with a dynastic background have contested the last two Assembly elections in 2015 and 2020. According to reports, one-third of ministers in the earlier JD(U)-RJD government (2022-24) had a political family background.

The scene appears no different in the upcoming Lok Sabha election in Bihar.