| Muroh (Madhepura):
Even decades before they established their empire in Bihar and UP, no one dared to stand up to the ‘‘backward’’ Yadavs here. They ruled unchallenged. ‘‘Madhepura is to the Yadavs what Rome is to the Pope,’’ harassed upper caste chieftains conceded decades ago. Today this is Laloo Yadav’s most repeated campaign theme in his electoral battle with fellow Yadav, Sharad.
 Yadavs of Madhepura, who are nearly 30 percent of the voters, will decide who their Pope is. Muroh village is proof of what Yadavs are in Madhepura. This village was home to the most famous Yadav before Laloo: B P Mandal, author of the Mandal commission report, was born here in a 100 year old sprawling bungalow. ‘‘No upper caste ever dared humiliate me,’’ says R N Mandal, eldest of his sons. The Mandal family owned hundreds of acres of land. During his stay at Patna University in the 1930s, B P Mandal had two servants to attend to him. There are hundreds of Yadav families in Madhepura who have been landlords for centuries, employing hundreds, politically organised and talking eye to eye with anyone, upper caste or not. Their farmhouses could make the upper caste landlords of Champaran or Bhojpur feel inferior.
In contrast, in Laloo’s birthplace of Gopalganj, he was constantly humiliated and even beaten up by the upper castes in his childhood. He and his opponent Sharad Yadav were catapulted to unimaginable political heights when V P Singh dusted out a forgotten report left behind by B P Mandal, in 1989. Today Laloo and Jabalpur-born Sharad, empowered by the Mandal commission report that expanded job reservation for the backward castes, are fighting a bitter battle in B P Mandal’s homeland.
 | | | | RELATED STORIES |
|
|
Though M K Mandal, the third son of B P Mandal, is campaigning for Sharad Yadav, Sharad remains the outsider. Laloo and wife Rabri Devi tried to run an extra mile on the last day campaign. ‘‘Get him (Sharad) a ticket to Jabalpur,’’ Rabri told enthusiastic supporters. Sharad, whom many voters consider inaccessible, arrogant and controlled by a coterie, is, finding the going tough. Laloo is the authentic Yadav here and his party RJD the Yadav party. Sharad cannot count on more than 10 percent of the Yadav votes, perhaps less than the 1999 elections, when he trounced Laloo by more than 30,000 votes.
Sharad’s calculations are dependent on the upper caste consolidation that he expects in his favour. Here again, some influential sections of Rajputs who were crucial to his victory last time have now switched sides to Laloo. Sharad Yadav’s brother-in-law Sanjay and a large group of people are camping in Madhepura trying to lure voters. Radanand Yadav at Chandni Chowk said Sharad’s team was distributing towels, T-shirts and even money to voters. Narendra Yadav, a campaign manager for Sharad denied the allegations.
And with his supporters—like the one we met at a village 18 km from the town—Sharad does not need opponents. A vehicle marked UP-80 P 6196, with a PRESS sticker, screeched to halt at a teashop. A man who introduced himself as a journalist from Rajastan wanted to find out who was winning the elections. Customers at the teashop were initially evasive, but then complained about Sharad Yadav not doing enough for them. ‘‘You are illiterate fools,’’ he said. ‘‘You know how big a leader Sharad Yadav is?’’ As the man raised the pitch for this campaign for Sharad Yadav and distributed bags with Sharad’s pictures on them, tempers rose.
When the villagers surrounded him, he conceded that he was not a journalist but was campaigning for Sharad. Realising that he could be mauled by the mob, he got into the vehicle and fled, but not without a final word. ‘‘We will show you at the booth on May 5.’’
|
