In Nalanda, the CPI(ML)‘s candidate is more popular than the JD(U) candidate, but Nitish Kumar holds the fort

Nalanda, Bihar, home district of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, faces a tough electoral battle in the upcoming Lok Sabha election.

Nalanda, also known as ‘Kurmistan’, given the dominance of the Kurmi caste in the constituency, is Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s home district. Mr. Kumar is a Kurmi, an Other Backward Classes (OBC) community. Nalanda, the historic land where the 24th Jain Tirthankara, Mahavira, is believed to have attained nirvana, is also famous for both its ancient and modern universities. Known too for its large-scale vegetable agriculture, Mr. Kumar has brought several development projects to Nalanda, making it Bihar’s ‘second capital’ after Patna.

For the last 28 years, the Nalanda Lok Sabha constituency has been a stronghold of the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) but this time, much is at stake for Mr. Kumar as his party’s candidate, three-time (2009, 2014 and 2019) sitting MP Kaushalendra Kumar, appears to be struggling in the face of the popularity of his rival, the Communist Party of India-Marxist-Leninist (CPI-ML) candidate, Sandeep Saurav. Nalanda is one of the very few Lok Sabha constituencies in Bihar where Mr. Kumar is seen as a more popular puller of votes than Prime Minister Narendra Modi for candidates of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the electoral battle. Mr. Kumar held roadshows for two days (May 27 and May 28) in the constituency to woo voters in his party’s favour.

“For us, Nitish Kumar is everything. He has given so much to us that we had not seen for decades,” senior citizen Awadhesh Singh of Kalyanbigha village told The Hindu. “Who will give us so much in terms of development?” he asked, sitting in the office-like front room of his village house.

Kalyanbigha is Mr. Kumar’s ancestral village and it boasts of a referral hospital, a pucca road, a branch of the State Bank of India, primary and higher secondary schools, street lights, round-the-clock electricity, a police station, a sports shooting range, and smooth, serpentine, connecting roads in the shadow of rows of trees on both flanks.

The CM’s signature on the village is also evident in a children’s park by the side of a well-fortified pond, an expansive village temple, a mobile tower with vapour lights fixed in the middle, cemented benches under the shadow of a tree by the side of the pond, a memorial park named after his late wife with busts of Mr. Kumar’s parents, near which stands his newly constructed double-storeyed house. But the familiar face of sexagenarian Sitaram Brahi, caretaker of Mr. Kumar’s old ancestral home for over four decades, was missing at the locked new house.

Every year, Mr. Kumar visits Kalyanbigha thrice (on January 1, May 14, and November 29) to offer floral tributes to his parents, the late Ram Lakhan Singh and Parmeshwari Devi, and wife, the late Manju Sinha, on their death respective anniversaries. Mr. Kumar was elected as an MLA for the first time in 1985 from this Assembly constituency. 

“Wohi (Nitish Kumar) jab anaj-paani de rahe hain, vikas kar rahe hain, to humlog vote kisko denge, unhi ko na? (when he is providing us food and so much development, who will we vote for? We will vote for him only, no?)” a group of young voterssitting outside the sweltering memorial park on Wednesday afternoon, said.