Bihar has a tryst with its first-time candidates

Bihar has been stuck in a godawful rut for years… decades. Incumbent chief minister Nitish Kumar has been in the saddle for nearly two decades with a few brief interruptions. He also mysteriously got a reputation for good governance — earning the monicker ‘sushasan babu’ somewhere down the line — when his state is at the rock bottom of rankings across key human development indicators. Life expectancy, literacy, infant mortality… you name it.

Yet, somehow, the people of Bihar have not found a way to demand — and get — a better deal. And it has been a long while. Politicians who claimed to be steering a new social and cultural awakening clung to their chairs, while the people kept waiting for deliverance that never came.

On 6 and 11 November, Bihar has another chance to pick representatives who won’t merely mark attendance in the state Assembly but will think, speak and act for Bihar’s long-denied interests. A few young faces, all but one first-timers, caught our eye. They may not all win, but they stand for hope in a different kind of politics — in which people’s representatives put people and public welfare first.

In a state still held hostage to caste equations, these young candidates are talking of jobs, education, healthcare — and justice for all. They stand out for their conviction, their backstories and the choices they have made.

Popular singer and actor in Bhojpuri films Shatrughan Kumar Yadav alias Khesari Lal, 39, is an ‘accidental’ RJD candidate from Chhapra. His wife was the party’s first choice. It was only after it was discovered that her name was missing from the electoral list that her husband stepped in.

This ‘accidental’ candidate has taken the constituency by storm with his earthy speeches. “I deeply respect Laluji and Tejashwi bhaiya, but if bhaiya doesn’t deliver on his promises, I will walk.”

Shashant Shekhar Divya Gautam Shiv Prakash Garib Das Khesari Lal Dhananjay Naveen Kumar In Bihar, the audacity of hope

He is not formally educated but has learnt much in a life of hardship and struggle, doing all sorts of odd jobs like milking cows and selling milk. When the crowds at his campaign remind him of his bawdy music, he quips: “Is it because of my songs or my acting that our schools and hospitals are in such bad shape? Are my songs responsible for keeping this place so dirty?”

He wants to serve, not to make money, he says. “I live well and my children are getting a good education. I want to ensure that you too live well and your children too receive a good education.” That’s his promise.

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Unlike other parties who have dumped winning candidates from five years ago, the CPI-ML, which is contesting just 20 seats, has re-nominated all 12 of its sitting MLAs. The party’s confidence is bolstered by the report card each MLA has presented to constituents, detailing their work as legislators, the issues they helped resolve or draw attention to.

From the semi-urban segment of Digha on the outskirts of Patna, the party has fielded Divya Gautam, 34, whose political journey began in 2011, when she joined the CPI-ML’s student wing AISA (All India Students’ Association) as an undergraduate student of mass communications in Patna College.

Next, she got a Master’s degree in women’s studies from TISS (Tata Institute of Social Sciences), Hyderabad, worked in Jharkhand for a spell on rural development and land rights, and went on to teach journalism at Patna Women’s College in 2021. Divya is currently pursuing her PhD in BITS, Pilani on ‘Male stardom — question of caste, class and masculinity in Bhojpuri cinema’.

The only woman among the CPI-ML’s 20 candidates, Divya asks why political parties must wait for the Women’s Reservation Bill to take effect before ensuring fair representation for women.

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A not-so-well-known fact about this cousin of the late actor Sushant Singh Rajput is her involvement in theatre from her student days. She began with street plays after the 2012 Nirbhaya rape case in New Delhi.

As a member of the party’s Gender Justice and Sensitisation Cell, she has been an outspoken advocate for women’s rights, and holds strong views on women’s safety and the pressures of patriarchy. She cleared the state public service examination, but gave up that career path, saying it would have restricted her freedom of expression. Divya counts Maxim Gorky and Charlie Chaplin among her inspirations.

Dhananjay, 29, the CPI-ML’s candidate from Bhore in Gopalganj, became the first Dalit president of the JNU Students’ Union in 2024. During that campaign, he’d memorably said, “When you come from a background like mine, politics isn’t a career choice, it’s a responsibility.”

Beginning his political journey as a student councillor at Delhi’s Ambedkar University, Dhananjay rose rapidly through the AISA ranks. “Our politics was never about individual success,” he once said at a campus meeting. “We carry forward a collective history of people’s struggles that don’t always make headlines.”

A PhD scholar at JNU’s School of Arts and Aesthetics, Dhananjay has been an energetic activist for workers’ rights, involved in protests by DTC (Delhi Transport Corporation) employees and by workers at the Tamil Nadu-based Pricol. In his street-theatre life, too, Dhananjay focuses on labour and Dalit issues.

Naveen Kumar, 24, is one of the youngest candidates in the fray. He has been fielded by the Congress, in keeping with the party’s push to build next-generation leadership. He is an engineer, and will contest from the reserved segment of Bathnaha in Sitamarhi district, which borders Nepal. In 2023, Naveen was elected a zila parishad councillor when he was barely 23.

This Gen Z star caught the eyes of party scouts not so long ago. Don’t be fooled by his schoolboy looks and slight build — he has steel in his spine and a sharp head on his shoulders. But he is being fielded from a segment that the BJP has held for the past three elections.

The Congress has also thrown its weight behind Shiv Prakash Garib Das, 30, in Bachhwara, where he faces a ‘friendly contest’ with the CPI.

In 2020, Garib Das had contested as an Independent and finished third with 39,878 votes. His decision to run then was driven by emotion, following the death of his father, Ramdeo Rai, a veteran Congress leader who won Bachhwara in 1972 and 1977 and made headlines by defeating Karpoori Thakur in the 1984 Lok Sabha election, helped along by the sympathy wave after Indira Gandhi’s assassination.

The post-Mandal period saw the Congress lose its grip in the state, which the party is now hoping to reverse. Days after Garib Das filed his nomination, star campaigner Imran Pratapgarhi flew in to canvass for him, calling himself an emissary of Rahul Gandhi tasked with ensuring Garib Das’s victory.

Patna Sahib has been a BJP stronghold for decades. No political observer in the state would bet on the Congress making an impression here. Yet, the party has fielded Shashant Shekhar, 34, who has an enviable IIT/ IIM academic track, and is focusing on the youth and education while his rivals are talking about roads, drains and filth. He speaks of the importance of scholarships, dreams of setting up an Ambedkar Knowledge Centre and a library in every ward, and introducing post-graduate courses in degree colleges.

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The common current that runs through the stories of these first-time candidates is a quiet impatience with the old order. In a state that has long been synonymous with backwardness and stagnation, these young risk-takers hint at a new grammar of politics, which is not about patronage but participation. Whether they win or lose, their presence itself marks a change.