WANTED NO MORE

On July 18, the same day as over two dozen constituents of the national Opposition front came together in Bengaluru for their second conclave, Rajesh Ranjan, alias Pappu Yadav, one of the most popular don-turned-politicians in Bihar and five-term Lok Sabha MP, was dejectedly addressing a press conference in Patna to express hurt over not being invited to the meeting. 

- Amitabh Srivastava

Yadav, who heads the Jan Adhikar Party (JAP) and enjoys clout in the Kosi region, recounted how he had appealed to Bihar chief minister and Janata Dal-United (JD-U) supremo Nitish Kumar, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) boss Lalu Yadav, and even the Congress for entry into the state's Mahagathbandhan (MGB) fold, only to be ungraciously snubbed. It was just last year that the Congress had nominated his wife Ranjeet Ranjan to the Rajya Sabha-but then, as a forceful orator in Parliament, she has an independent political existence. 

It's rough weather for Bihar's once-powerful bahubalis these days. Part-Robinhoods, part-caste lords, part-social influencers and part-musclemen, today they find themselves being cast aside ahead of the 2024 polls, partly thanks to Nitish's split with the BJP last year and his alliance with the Congress, RJD and the Left. It's more a course in logic than ethics, though. The move altered Bihar's political theatre, turning it into a two-front battle between the MGB and the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and consequently shrinking the space for such 'one-man armies'. So, apart from Yadav, there is also former MLA Anant Singh a.k.a. Chhote Sarkar, the once-prized strongman now left twiddling his thumbs in Patna's Beur central jail after his conviction in an Arms Act case. Incidentally, the RJD had just last year backed Singh's wife Neelam Devi for the Mokama assembly bypoll after her husband's disqualification, and she even won the election. As for the controversial release of convicted killer and politician Anand Mohan Singh in April, if there was any speculation that the MGB would welcome him in a bid to sway Rajputs away from the BJP, nothing has materialised so far, with no prominent politician seen rubbing shoulders with him.