Fortune favours the brave, but in case of sons and relatives of politicians, it favours the trend.
In Bihar, the political career of relatives of veteran leaders hinged on the performance of the alliance they were from. While lady luck smiled on those contesting on Grand Alliance tickets, those in the fray as NDA candidates lost badly. Of course there were exceptions, too.
Foremost among the winners were RJD chief Lalu Prasad's sons - Tej Pratap and Tejaswi - from Mahua and Raghopur respectively.#Tej Pratap defeated Ravindra Rai of the Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) while Tejaswi beat sitting MLA Satish Kumar, who had switched from the JDU to the BJP after the Grand Alliance denied him a ticket. Speculation is rife one son could be anointed deputy chief minister in the new Nitish Kumar-led government, and the other a minister.
Former JDU MP Shivanand Tiwari managed an RJD ticket for his son Rahul Tiwari from Shahpur in Bhojpur.
On the other hand, it was a gloomy day for parents in the NDA camp. Former chief minister and HAMS founder Jitan Ram Manjhi's son Santosh Kumar Suman lost from Kutumba in Aurangabad district to the Congress' Rajesh Kumar. Manjhi, himself, won from Imamganj in Gaya but lost from Makhdumpur in Jehanabad.
HAMS state president and former state minister Samrat Chaudhary's son Rajesh Kumar, better known as Rohit, lost from Khagaria. HAMS leader and former minister Narendra Singh saw his two sons - Ajay Pratap who contested on a BJP ticket from Jamui and Sumit Singh who fought independently from neighbouring Chakai - lose.
Former chief minister Jagannath Mishra's son and former minister Nitish Mishra, contested from Jhanjharpur in Madhubani on a BJP ticket and lost to Gulab Yadav of the RJD. His cousin Rishi Mishra, son of former Union minister L.N. Mishra, also lost.
Vivek Thakur, son of BJP vice-president and former Union minister C.P. Thakur, lost from Brahmpur in Buxar. Buxar BJP MP Ashwini Kumar Choubey's son Arjit Shashwat, lost to Ajit Sharma of the Congress at Bhagalpur.
BJP veteran MP Hukumdeo Narayan Yadav's son Ashok Kumar Yadav lost from Keoti in Darbhanga. LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan's brother and state unit chief Pashupati Kumar Paras lost from Alauli in Khagaria, nephew Prince Raj lost from Kalyanpur and son-in-law Anil Kumar Sadhu from Bochaha.
LJP MP from Khagaria, Mehboob Ali Kaiser, failed to establish his son Muhammad Yusuf Khan from Simri Bakhtiyarpur in Saharsa. Former LJP MP Surajbhan Singh saw his relatives Ramesh Singh and Himanshu Kumar lose from Vibhutipur (Samastipur) and Jamalpur (Munger) respectively.
Senior RJD leader and former MP Prabhunath Singh's son Randhir Singh, lost in Saran district to C.N. Gupta of the BJP and Sanjeev Chaurasia, son of BJP leader Ganga Prasad, won from Digha. They certainly managed to buck the trend, but exceptions don't make the rule, right?
