Dynasty politics and votes: Bihar’s family group

On November 20, 36 year old Deepak Prakash took oath as minister. Bihar Government without contesting recent elections Assembly elections completedHis 65-year-old father, Upendra Kushwaha, is an MP who has spent more than four decades in politics, His mother Snehlata Kushwaha contested and won the elections from Sasaram, The family is part of the Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM), a regional party that contested six seats and won four,

The RLM is part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), a coalition of three other parties in Bihar: the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Janata Dal (United), the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), and the Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular).

The RLM secured only one ministerial post, which went to Prakash, who had helped his parents campaign. The software engineer, who graduated from MIT Manipal in 2011, has six months to get elected to the assembly. He says, “I am not new to politics. I have seen my father closely and have also been active in politics since 2019.” “As far as choosing me for the ministerial post is concerned, my father would be a better person to answer as to why the party took this decision.”

His father tells people not to look at caste or family, but “judge talent based on a person’s ability”. He says that many people have come into politics because of their “family background”, but they have neither the knowledge nor the interest to serve the society.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, 74, in his 10th term, whose son Nishant Kumar is not in politics, has always spoken against dynasty rule. In fact, during the election campaign, Mr Nitish even said that his son and wife – when he was alive – did not stay with him in his official bungalow. Yet, 10 of his 26 ministers are from political families. In this election, parties from both sides of the political border – NDA and India Bloc – fielded members of the family.

Possibilities and promises

Kushwaha is a prominent leader of the Other Backward Class (OBC) in Bihar and his community has the second largest share after Yadavs in terms of voter support. He considers the eminent socialist leader and two-time CM late Karpoori Thakur as his guru, although Thakur never promoted his children.

Following criticism of her promotion of her son, Kushwaha issued a message on November 21, accusing critics of being “malicious and prejudiced”. “People have accused me of nepotism. This step was not only necessary but also inevitable to save and maintain the survival and future of the party.” Without naming Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and Lalu Prasad Yadav’s 36-year-old son Tejashwi Yadav, who has not completed school, he said, “Deepak Prakash is not a student who failed in school.” All voters have to do, he said, is “give them a little time to live up to their trust”.

Samrat Chaudhary was made the Agriculture Minister in 1999 during the RJD regime, when he was not a member of the Legislative Assembly or Legislative Council. He was later removed due to age discrepancy. Samrat emerged as an OBC leader and joined the BJP about seven years ago and is now the deputy CM and home minister in the Nitish government. This is the first time in 20 years that Nitish has given this department to someone else.

Samrat is the son of veteran Koeri leader Shakuni Chaudhary. He contested elections from Tarapur seat after a gap of 15 years. His father was an MLA from Samata Party, who later switched to Congress and later RJD and represented Tarapur six times.

Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) gave the ticket to its founder, 81-year-old Union Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, to his 38-year-old daughter-in-law Deepa Kumari, who contested and won the Imamganj seat; and his 60-year-old mother Jyoti Devi, who won from Barachatti seat. His son Santosh Kumar Suman, 50, is a member of the Legislative Council and a minister in the Nitish government.

Deepa Kumari had to face the question of family politics in many campaign meetings. While presenting his side, he said that his mother was given ticket by Janata Dal (United) in 2010. His mother, he said, had dedicated herself to SRI (System of Rice Intensification), an agro-ecological method of farming that uses less water but produces higher yields than the dominant method.

Deepa Kumari, who belongs to the Dalit community, said that before her husband came into her life, she was a district councilor for five years. In her media interaction, she would immediately shift her focus to Lalu Prasad’s family, which she claimed did not start with her grassroots work. Before joining politics, Tejashwi was a cricketer. In 1997, when Lalu was accused of being involved in a fodder scam worth crores of rupees, he made his wife Rabri Devi the CM overnight. She said, she had no political experience then, but she remained CM for seven years.

From old hands to new hands

Another Bihar leader who faced criticism for promoting his family members was the late Ram Vilas Paswan, who pushed his brothers Pashupati Kumar Paras, 73, and the late Ram Chandra Paswan, into politics. His son and Union Minister Chirag Paswan, 43, of Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) follows in his footsteps. His 49-year-old brother-in-law Arun Bharti is an MP from Jamui Lok Sabha seat and during the assembly elections, he had given ticket to his nephew Seemant Mrinal to contest from Garkha assembly seat. In 2019, three of the party’s six MPs were from the Paswan family.

Also read: After two party MLAs took oath as ministers, Chirag Paswan said, the rise of LJP (RV) fulfills his father’s dream.

In an interview, Chirag had said, “I am a Napo kid; I can’t turn a blind eye to this fact…” He joked that he had tried other professions but failed. He said it was a double-edged sword: if someone like him did well, the credit was given to his parents; If he doesn’t do this, people will say that he has ruined the family name.

Chetan Anand, 33, son of former MP and don-turned-politician Anand Mohan, known as Sher-e-Bihar in the Kosi region, won the Nabinagar assembly seat on a Janata Dal (United) ticket.

Chetan won the 2020 assembly elections from Sheohar seat on RJD ticket, but joined the Nitish Kumar camp during the trust vote last year. His mother, Lovely Anand, 59, is a JDU MP from Sheohar Lok Sabha seat. Chetan has no hesitation in accepting that family politics is a part of regional politics. He says, “I started my political career when my father was in jail and I did not get anyone’s support. I have built my political identity on the basis of my hard work.” He told that his mother had become an MP long before his father. “Let people decide whether the relevant family member is capable or not. People are very wise in choosing, and they always choose the right person, no matter what caste, religion they belong to, or whether they come from an influential family.”

Osama Shahab, 31, is another MLA with a family history of politics. He won Raghunathpur seat on RJD ticket. His father, late Mohammad Shahabuddin, a don-turned-politician, had once spread terror not only in Siwan but also in neighboring districts like Gopalganj and Saran.

His father was a four-time MP from Siwan and twice MLA from Jiradei seat. Shahabuddin died while serving life imprisonment in a double murder case in Tihar Jail during the COVID-19 pandemic in May 2021. Osama said, “You are calling it nepotism, but I see it as support of the people. My father is no longer with me and yet I have won the election. The good work he did for the people of Siwan is still in their minds.”

‘the upper hand’

Sanjay Kumar, former associate professor of political science at AN College, Patna, says that compared to other candidates, children of politicians have the upper hand because they get a well-established social and political system. He says, “New candidates take time to win the trust of voters whereas the children of leaders already have connections with the society. It is a different matter that they are recognized in both bad and good ways.”

For example, Tejashwi has fought two consecutive elections with the ‘Jungle Raj’ tag attached to the family name, despite the fact that he had nothing to do with it. However, because of his family he gets the Muslim-Yadav vote bank.

In 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called political dynasties the “biggest enemy of democracy”.