Love for "Munna" is unabated but votes may elude him. Munna, as Nitish Kumar is known in Bakhtiyarpur, is still the first choice as chief minister for hundreds of people in his hometown but the tie-up with Lalu Prasad has hardly gone well with the electorate.
The alliance with Lalu might have empowered Nitish to put his claim on a sizeable proportion of the traditional M-Y (Muslim-Yadav) votes of the RJD but people in the town, where he was born on March 1, 1951, are not quite happy about it.
The fear of "jungle raj" and a Yadav candidate fielded by the BJP poses a challenge for Nitish to get sitting MLA Anirudh Kumar of the RJD victorious again.
It was the day of Dussehra when this correspondent visited Nitish's home at Bakhtiyarpur on NH-30. Amid the decorative lights on the road and cacophony caused by religious songs blaring from loudspeakers at Puja pandals, Nitish's home wore a sombre look, with its battered walls and tiled roof.
The two-storey house, built over an area of not even a cottah, hardly had any signs of festivity, as it looked dark with only a low-voltage bulb in the portico and closed doors and windows. In fact, it would have been difficult to locate the home of the chief minister's post sunset if a guard was not seen standing at its entrance.
The guard recalled that Nitish last visited the house on September 2 when he had come to Bakhtiyarpur to inaugurate a government engineering college. People who have known Nitish for long claim that he visits his Bakhtiyarpur house more than his ancestral house at Kalyan Bigha in neighbouring Nalanda district. While the house at Kalyan Bigha was built by his forefathers, the one at Bakhtiyarpur was built by his father, late Kaviraj Ram Lakhan Singh, who was popularly known as Vaidyaji in the neighbourhood.
A part of the boundary wall in front of the old house has also been partially damaged as some months ago a speeding truck on the abutting NH-30 had rammed into it. Local residents claimed that neither Nitish nor his older brother Satish Kumar has added a brick to the house, as they want to keep it in its original shape.
While Nitish pays frequent visits to the house, Satish lives here with his wife and two daughters but they were out of town on the day of Dussehra. This correspondent was not allowed entry into the house, but the guard said that there are eight rooms in it, apart from a courtyard, kitchen and bathroom.
The chief minister's house lacks tap water and all water-related needs are met using a handpump and a well. The guard also said taps have been installed in the house but supply of municipal water is not there. Residents said water was supposed to be supplied through an overhead tank in Bakhtiyarpur town but the pipeline to Nitish's house and most places in the town are badly damaged.
There is not a single vehicle in Nitish's house and a small salon runs from a garage, which faces the road. Babloo Kumar, who runs the salon, claimed that Nitish has given him the space for free and he does not pay any rent.
Seventy-three-year-old Raghuvir Mittal, who claimed to be a good friend of Satish, shared some fond memories related to the chief minister. "Nitish has always been a man of integrity and dignity. He married a schoolteacher (late Manju Kumari Sinha) without taking any dowry, against the wishes of his father. In initial years of his political life, Nitish used to borrow money from us to buy train tickets for going to Delhi while many others among his peers used to board the train for free under MLA/MP quota," said Mittal.
Raghuvir initially said that Nitish's alliance with Lalu was not a good decision. However, asked for a detailed comment, he backtracked and said that it was Nitish's political decision and people of Bakhtiyarpur still support him.
A total of 14 candidates are contesting from the Bakhtiyarpur Assembly segment but the main fight is between Anirudh, Ranvijay Singh of the BJP and Akhilesh Jaiswal of the Bahujan Samajwadi Party.
Like most constituencies in the state, caste dynamics remain the decisive factor in Bakhtiyarpur as well.
Based on talks with cross-section of people, it turned out that population of Yadavs (around 60,000-70,000) is highest in Bakhtiyarpur followed by extreme backward classes (around 45,000), Vaisya (40,000), Rajput (around 25,000) and Bhumihar (12,000-15,000) among others. Besides, Muslim voters number around 20,000.
"It is a tough fight for Anirudh, who is a Yadav, as a section of Yadavs votes would also go to the NDA as it has fielded a candidate from the same caste. Besides, Independent candidate Jitendra Yadav and Subrat Kumar Yadav of Jan Adhikar Party would also cut into the Yadav votes of the sitting MLA," said Kaushal Kumar, a medical representative at Hakikatpur market on NH-30, where Nitish's house is situated.
Though Anirudh, a youngster living near Nitish's house, was all praise for Nitish, he also talked about the fear of jungle raj returning due to the Lalu-Nitish tie-up.
"Though we all want Nitish to remain as the CM but his alliance with Lalu has not gone down well with people here. Most people apprehend the return of jungle raj if Lalu shares power with Nitish," said Anirudh.
♦ Bakhtiyarpur votes on October 28
