Prashant Sahay campaigns in Hazaribagh. Picture by Prashant Mitra

He is a lawyer of lost cases. Hailed as a successful criminal lawyer, his acquaintances claim that cases turned down by other lawyers are taken up by him. Grandson of a former chief minister of Bihar, K.B. Sahay, his current claim to fame is his campaign against external affairs minister Yashwant Sinha.

Prashant Sahay has been contesting the Hazaribagh Lok Sabha seat on a single-point agenda of “Kisi ko bhi chun do; Yashwant Sinha ko dhun do” (elect anyone you like, so long Yashwant Sinha is spiked).

“When my grandfather lost his security deposit here,” says the burly advocate, “I am not foolish to harbour thoughts of winning.” Asked why he contests at all, he provides a suitably rehearsed reply. “We professionals are privileged people and draw so much sustenance from society, but when it comes to giving something back, we slink into our air-conditioned rooms and lock our doors; that’s why I contest and campaign. I earn enough to afford a hired vehicle and a microphone,” he adds. Sahay is an entertaining speaker, a riveting orator, explains a local journalist. When he holds a street-corner meeting, leaders of all other parties park their vehicles and take up positions to listen to him, the scribe claims.

One of the leaders has actually confessed, he adds, that he picked up phrases, talking points, poetry and even some statistics from Sahay’s public speeches.

It is tempting to dismiss Sahay as a crackpot and a publicity seeker who is willing to climb on top of his hired jeep to pose for the camera, anytime and for anyone.

It is even easier to dub him a “dummy” candidate put up by political parties to embarrass one or more prominent candidates. Worse, there are people, one suspects, who are convinced that he is a blackmailer. Who else but a blackmailer would have the time and money to dig into a candidate’s past? That belief gets strengthened when one goes through the “white paper” he has issued against the external affairs minister. Sinha, he alleges, has stored as much as Rs 70 crore in his Demotand house in Hazaribagh; bought a house in Juhu valued at Rs 20 crore near the house of Amitabh Bachchan; set up a bottling plant in Pune and financed films through the good offices of Pahlaj Nihalani.

The scurrilous pamphlet even alleges that Sinha has a Swiss Bank account and that he consumes imported energy tablets and beer. The foreign minister, of course, has treated Sahay’s antics with both contempt and disdain, refusing to be drawn into a “low level discourse”.

Sahay, however, remains as unapologetic as ever. Asked the basis of such preposterous charges, he says brazenly, “If the charges are false, why doesn’t Sinha institute a case against me? I am a criminal lawyer myself and I know what I am doing.” As an afterthought, he adds, “This pamphlet was first issued in 1999, therefore I cannot be blamed of inconsistency.”