The Mahua assembly constituency in the fertile Gangetic plains, about 50km north of Patna, may well be representative of the intricate Bihar politics, which is always in churn. Dr Ashma Parveen, a local gynaecologist, is the candidate of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United). She is also the daughter of Mohammed Ilyas Hussain, a key aide of former chief minister Lalu Prasad. Hussain is serving a five-year sentence in the 22-year-old bitumen scam case, which took place when Lalu was chief minister. Parveen's candidature forced Lalu's eldest son, Tej Pratap, the sitting MLA of the Rashtriya Janata Dal, to move to Hasanpur in the neighbouring district, out of fear over a split in minority votes.
On October 26, Nitish Kumar flew down in his AgustaWestland helicopter to campaign for Parveen. Kumar was met with a crowd not as enthusiastic as he would have liked. With several empty chairs staring at him, he highlighted the work done in the past 15 years—roads, education, empowering women, improving law and order. “The younger generation should take notice of our work,” he said. “Some people only believe in publicity. I believe in work.” The crowd mostly remained silent, but cheered when he promised solar street lights for every village in his “next term”.
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