In the relieved smiles of the Mahagathbandhan Thursday, the anguished tears of Madan Prasad Sah were already history. However, as far as protests by ticket seekers go, the image of Sah rolling on the ground with his clothes torn may linger longer.
It was a sabotage carried out in the dead of the night, claims the RJD leader. He left party chief Lalu Prasad’s residence at 3 am on October 19 with the promise of a ticket from Madhuban in East Champaran, Sah says, and returned hours later to find it had been taken away.
It was then that the media captured the 54-year-old, storming out of 1, Anne Marg, wailing he had been destroyed, claiming he had been demanded Rs 2.7 crore for a ticket, and saying he had put off the marriage of his children to finance his political ambitions.
An Ayurvedic doctor, Sah, then a first-time contestant, had lost from Madhuban to the BJP’s Rana Randhir Singh by just 5,500 votes in 2020. According to him, that was not the only reason the RJD owed him the ticket, and that this was Lalu’s desire too as Sah is an EBC Teli, a favourable caste combination for the seat.
The constituency has roughly 60,000 Teli and OBC Vaishya votes together, apart from 35,000 Sahanis, 40,000 Yadavs, and 35,000 Muslims. The Sahanis, Yadavs and Muslims are expected to back the RJD. Party sources say an internal survey too had recommended that Sah be renominated.
Sah told The Indian Express: “I have been associated with the RJD since 1990. When Lalu Prasad held the ‘Laathi mein Tel Pilawan’ rally in Patna in the 1990s (an expression of OBC assertion), I did my bit… Misa Bharati (Lalu’s daughter and Lok Sabha MP) also supported my candidature. I feel betrayed.”
Sah, who says he remained in touch with Lalu and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav all through the past five years, says the caste combination was the reason he was fielded by the RJD last time too from Madhuban. And that this was the reason he came close to winning the seat.
The candidate who has replaced him now, Sandhya Rani, has hardly spent any time in Madhuban in five years, Sah adds. According to sources, the RJD’s first choice was Sandhya Rani’s husband Santosh Mushwaha. However, he is a government doctor and his resignation was not accepted in time for him to file his nomination, and hence his wife was chosen.
Sources said that, at least partly, the Sah family fight also hit his chances. Sah’s nephew Sanjiv Ranjan, a doctor based in Motihari, was also seeking the Madhuban seat, from either the RJD or ally Vikassheel Insaan Party. “It is possible that the leadership decided to give the ticket to a third person because of the fight between Sah and his nephew,” said an RJD leader.
There is another Sah in the picture as well, Madan Sah’s brother Bhagwan Sah, who contested from Madhuban in 2015 as an Independent. He got only about 4,200 votes but, family members say, inspired Madan enough for him to enter the fray. When he gave a close fight to the BJP’s Rana Randhir Singh, the son of former RJD MP Sitaram Singh, in 2020, Madan Sah thought he had found his calling.
A Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery from Ravindra Mukherjee Ayurvedic College in Motihari, Sah owns a market complex and a saw mill in hometown Pakdidayal. He declared assets worth Rs 3.12 crore in his 2020 election affidavit.
Asked about his next political move, Sah said: “I am with the RJD, I will support it. I leave it to the top RJD leaders to decide my future.”
An RJD leader said: “No commitment was made to Sah, but politics is a waiting game. If he remains loyal, the party will consider how to help him grow.”