Shardanand Mishra at the BJP office in Patna on Tuesday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

The son of a former Congress MLA is serving tea to the state BJP leaders. Regularly.

Shashi Rani Mishra was the Congress MLA from the Karakat Assembly segment in Rohtas from 1985 to 1990. From around 1998, her son Shardanand Mishra has been serving tea to party leaders and visitors at the BJP office in Patna.

Before eyebrows rise and sniggers ensue about the son of a Congress leader working for members of a rival party, Mishra set the records straight. “Every person has his/her likes and dislikes. There is no logic that warrants I should join the party my mother served for years,” said the 40-year-old.

Shashi Rani Mishra died in 2004. Once a Congress MLA, she later left it for the Samata Party and then the JD(U).

If progenies of political leaders mostly avoid the company of members of rival parties, Mishra loves to serve the BJP leaders. Along with it, he expects that the party would do something for him and his family.

Like other BJP members, Mishra sees Narendra Modi as the future of the country, and no surprises, he even associates himself with the BJP prime ministerial candidate.

Narendra Modi had started his career as a tea boy, selling the beverage at a railway station in Gujarat. Now, as the BJP’s chosen one, he is leading the party for the Lok Sabha polls next year.

The BJP has even tried to highlight Modi’s careergraph from being a tea boy to becoming the prime ministerial candidate by opening NaMo tea stalls. The state leadership has failed to do much for Mishra though.

Still, Mishra is all praise for Modi and the BJP. “The BJP is the only party where even a common worker can aspire to become big. Though I am in the middle age of my life and do not expect much from my career, I hope that the party will look into the interests of my family.”

An Intermediate passout, Mishra, lives in a rented house with his wife and son in Gardanibagh. He has three brothers and one among them, Mukti Narayan Mishra, is a Congress leader at Aurangabad. He claimed that after his mother’s death, he has found it difficult to bear the family expenses and financial differences with his brothers has aggravated his troubles.

The state Congress is unaware of Mishra working at the BJP office.

State spokesperson Prem Chand Mishra said: “Shashi Rani Mishra was in our party, but after her death, her family members never contacted the party. It is very difficult to know what the family members of all the party leaders are doing.”

The state BJP leadership although did not lose a chance to rub it in. “It should be a reason for worry for the Congress leaders that the son of a Congress MLA is with the BJP,” said Bihar BJP chief Mangal Pandey.