On Wednesday, the BJP’s Delhi MP and Bhojpuri actor-singer Manoj Tiwari arrived in the Digha constituency in Patna to campaign for the party candidate and two-term MLA, Sanjiv Chaurasia, 56. Holding a rally in Rajeev Nagar area, Tiwari sang a few songs before urging the people to re-elect their “humble MLA” Chaurasia.
Barely two kms away, in Gosain Tola area, the CPI(ML)Liberation’s 33-year-old candidate Divya Gautam was then drawing sizeable crowds as she undertook a door-to-door canvassing through the narrow lanes.
Gautam was wrapped in triple scarves representing the flags of the CPI(ML) L, RJD and Congress – the three key constituents of the Opposition Mahagathbandhan. The slogans hailing their leaders, including Tejashwi Yadav, Rahul Gandhi and Dipankar Bhattacharya, rent the air.
Interacting with local residents, Gautam greeted them with folded hands and distributed pamphlets.
Unlike her main rival, the electioneering of the CPI(ML)L debutant does not feature star campaigners or SUV convoys. Instead of relying on big donors, she has also turned to crowdfunding, appealing to her supporters online to give donations for her campaign.
“There’s this mindset that elections are not for common people, that only wealthy candidates or those backed by big parties, or even musclemen, can contest. I want to change that mindset,” says Gautam, speaking to The Indian Express.
“Elections are for the people, by the people, and of the people,” she says. “I want to show the people that someone like them, from a middle-class family, can also contest and win. Even when I was active in student politics in Patna University, I didn’t have any financial backing, while my opponent had done significant spending. Yet, the outcome was very close.”
In 2012, Gautam, an alumna of Patna Women’s College, contested the Patna University Students’ Union election as the AISA candidate for the president’s post, but lost narrowly to the ABVP candidate.
An academic and theatre actor, Gautam, who holds MA degrees in Journalism and Mass Communication as well as Women’s Studies, is currently doing her PhD. She has also served as an assistant professor in Patna Women’s College. Though she cleared the Bihar Public Service Commission exam, she did not join it, deciding to focus on education and activism rather than taking up a government job.
“I realised that in a government job, you don’t have much freedom to voice your opinion. For me, speaking my mind is important, and academia provided me the platform to do that. After my student politics days, I have been engaged in various social causes, and this journey led me to mainstream politics now,” she says.
Digha is scheduled for voting on November 6 in the first phase of the Bihar Assembly polls. It is the state’s largest constituency with over 4.55 lakh voters.
In the 2020 elections, Sanjeev Chaurasia had defeated the CPI(ML)L’s Shashi Yadav by over 46,000 votes. He had won the seat in 2015 too. The seat is part of the Patna Sahib Lok Sabha constituency held by two-term BJP MP Ravi Shankar Prasad.
While Gautam is a maternal cousin of the late Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput, she has refrained from using his name in her campaign. Months after Rajput was found dead in his apartment in Mumbai’s Bandra in June 2020, the BJP had tried to make it an issue in the Bihar polls later that year.
“He (Rajput) was my brother, but I never used his name or stardom even in my college politics, even though he was among the most watched TV stars back then. Some may have tried to use his death for their political gains, but I don’t feel it’s ethical. I can’t use his name as a political tool. Those who recognise me as his sister could be out of admiration for him or news clicks, but for me, it’s a matter of moral conscience,” she said.
The Digha constituency is predominantly inhabited by the Kayastha community, with sizeable voters from other upper-caste groups, such as Rajputs, Brahmins and Bhumihars, besides the OBCs including Yadavs.
While Chaurasia belongs to the Vaishya group, Guatam is a Rajput.
The Digha seat also has one of the highest numbers of women voters in Bihar as it accounts for 2.17 lakh women voters, close to half of its total electors, even as the women-to-men ratio among voters in the state stands at 892:1,000.
Besides relying on perceived “anti-incumbency” against Chaurasia, the CPI(ML)L camp believes that the youth and woman factors would give a fillip to Gautam’s prospects in Digha.
Several locals accused Chaurasia of remaining “absent” in the constituency. A Gosain Tola resident Sahdev Kumar, 48, claims that the MLA showed up in his area only to conduct his fresh campaign. “People have been voting for the BJP for 10 years, but there’s been no real work done here during his two terms,” he says.
Echoing his views, Sudhir Prashad, a local store owner, says, “Even basic sanitation is a luxury here as garbage is collected for disposal only once in a fortnight.”
Another resident Mohammad Ikram says, “When it rains, our area is flooded. This has been the case for 20 years under the Nitish Kumar government. BJP leaders, including Chaurasia, are barely visible. The only things which have seen growth are inflation and corruption.”
Several youths also express discontent. Karan Kumar, a second year Patna university student and a first-time voter, says: “Our college doesn’t have the environment and resources one expects from a college in the state capital. We come from a low income family. If I could afford to stay in Delhi, I would have migrated there for education. There are not many good job opportunities here either. There may be a hope if a youth-led government like Tejashwi’s takes charge.”
A resident of Rajiv Nagar, who did not want to be named, called for a change, saying “The NDA government has been in power for too long. It’s time for something new. We are tired of the same old promises from the same old people. This time we want a grounded MLA who stay connected to the people and work on local issues.”
Some voters were also critical of the BJP’s “jungle raj” narrative against the Opposition, arguing that while the Lalu Prasad era has ended, the Nitish government has “failed” to deliver on its promises despite being at the helm for two decades.