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Kishanganj, perched on the eastern tip of Bihar (bordering West Bengal) is one of the few districts in the state where the “majority” community is the “minority”. Muslims account for 72 per cent of the population here.
Besides, Kishanganj is the only seat of the 40 in Bihar where the beleaguered Congress is in a comfortable position. The Congress has tied up with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and is contesting 12 seats in the state. The party’s firm position is not due to its organisational strength but because of the “Modi factor”.
So deep-rooted is the fear of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in this constituency — distinguished by its unblemished record of communal harmony — that the Muslim community has rallied to support a single Muslim candidate, sitting Congress MP Maulana Asrarul Haque.
To Haque’s advantage, Janata Dal (United) candidate Aktar ul Imam publicly stated he was “retiring” to ensure the “secular vote” does not split. People recall how in 1999, the BJP’s Shah Nawaz Hussain won, as Muslim votes were divided among multiple candidates and the BJP benefited in the process.
In Lasanpura village in Baisi, on the outskirts of Kishanganj, Shameem Rahi, a farmer, is apprehensive. “Jo aadmi Gujarat ka chief minister rahe ke, Hindu aur Musalmaano ko ek saath nahi rakh saka; toh agar voh aajayega pradhan mantri banke, toh dange karwayga (If the man who could not keep Hindus and Muslims together as the chief minister of Gujarat becomes the prime minister, he would engineer communal riots).”
For a region that did not witness any communal tension even in the aftermath of the Babri Masjid demolition, such a fear is very tangible.
Three-time MLA from Bahadurganj, Tausif Alam, confidently predicts a “one-way” vote. According to Tausif, last time Haque won by 281,000 votes, this time the margin could be more than 500,000, thanks to the fear factor.
In 1989, the Congress fielded journalist M J Akbar (now a BJP spokesperson). Muslims generally vote on caste lines. For instance, predominant Surjapuri Muslims (accounting for more than 400,000) vote differently from the Bhatia Muslims or even the Kolhiya Muslims. But now all these sects are supporting the Congress.
Muhammed Yaseen, a resident, says the Maulana is “bedaag aadmi, nek aadmi (untainted man, a good man)” who has worked for the development of the constituency. “Yahaan sirf Maulana ki lehar hai, koi Modi vodi ki lehar nahi hai (Here is only Maulana wave, no Modi wave),” he says.
The community is deeply anguished over Modi’s statement on the “Congress-promoted Pink Revolution” (beef exports and cow slaughter). Kailash Mody, a local businessman and Congress worker, says, “In this district, there has always been communal harmony, with Hindus and Muslims living together peacefully and celebrating Holi, Eid and Diwali. Now, the Muslim majority may be silent here but they are scared for the first time — not of the BJP but of Modi.”
Locals are overjoyed with the Maulana’s efforts in getting the Congress government at the Centre to establish an Aligarh Muslim University centre here. They are angry at the BJP’s candidate, Dilip Jaiswal, who had “worked overtime to oppose it”.
Across the Mahananda river at the Mastaan chowk, where daily wage labourers jostle for space with vegetable sellers at the local market, people talk about other options also. Ahmed Ali feels strongly about voting for the Aam Aadmi Party since for “the first time corruption is an issue”. Mohd Mushtaq, another resident, says a local variant of the “Modi sabun” (Modi soap made in Mumbai) is quite popular here.
Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi’s rally here was a huge success. In his address, Gandhi spoke about how Biharis were discriminated against and attacked by BJP ally Shiv Sena in Maharashtra. In an unusually combative style, Gandhi said, “Modi ji, Hindustan ko ullu banana bandh karo (Modi ji, stop making a fool of India).”
Rehaan Ahmed, a farmer, travelled 40 km to take part in the Gandhi rally. He had brought along his 12-year-old son. Due to the excessive security restrictions, the crowd had to walk three km to reach the venue. Ahmed says, “Secular vote nahi batega (The secular vote will not get divided).”
While locals testify to the “development” done by Nitish Kumar, it seems the JD (U) candidate had little option but to opt out. Not only is Akhtar ul Imam, the former RJD man, viewed as a “turncoat”, but the electorate was not happy with the prospect of division of Muslim votes. Imam was booed at in public meetings and he sensed the public displeasure with him. Significantly, Kumar’s wooing of the Pasmanda Muslims finds little traction in Kishanganj.
Imam’s defection to the JD (U) has led to bypoll in the Kochadhaman Assembly seat. Here, too, the JD (U) might lose out, as locals are unhappy with JD (U) nominee. Nitish, who was upset with Imam for “unilaterally” stepping aside, visited the area and could only campaign for the two Assembly seats — Kochadhaman and Baisi — in the area going to polls along with the Parliamentary constituency.
At Dharamganj, a Hindu locality, Satyavrat Sharma, an LIC agent, and Kamlesh Sharma, a railway contractor, are of the view that “the Gujarat riots of 2002 must be forgotten” now that the “courts have given a clean chit. “The country needs a vikaaspurush of the stature of Narendra Modi,” they say. Bengalis, who constitute a sizeable segment of the population, are rooting for Modi.
While it is the “Modi wave” that is being speculated and hotly debated across the country, the “Modi factor” here has skewed the poll pitch like never before, with “secularism” and “communal “ becoming familiar words even to the illiterate villagers of Doghadia Tola in Lasanpura.
