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Campaign Trail/ Tara Shankar Sahay

Siwan reeling under RJD candidate's terror

If proof were needed that the Siwan parliamentary constituency is reeling under the terror of the regional crime overlord and the Rashtriya Janata Dal candidate Mohammed Shahabuddin, just take a tour of the town. It is bereft of any other party's symbols except the green and white lantern banners and flags of Shahabuddin. The RJD flags and banners are hung across every street and flutter atop every house and shop, giving the impression that only one party is in the fray!

While most political observers here regard that the main fight would be between the RJD candidate and the Bharatiya Janata Party, signs of any other party are virtually non-existent. Even the BJP candidate, Vijay Shankar Dubey, is nowhere to be seen. However, the office secretary at the BJP office at Hospital Road, Surendra Prasad, has a different story to relate.

When this correspondent went to the BJP office, no office-bearer was present, and Surendra Prasad had to be summoned from a nearby tea-stall. Asked to explain why only the RJD banners and flags were to be seen, Prasad lowered his voice and said, "Sahib, our flags and banners were taken away two days back."

Asked why his party had not protested, Prasad said, "Charon taraf sitting MP ne dahshat phailaya hai (The sitting MP has spread terror everywhere)." He also maintained that he had brought the matter to the notice of senior BJP leader Pramod Mahajan.

Siwan constituency has six assembly segments -- Darauli, Goreyakuthi, Kiradai, Mairwa, Raghunathpur and Siwan. Muslim voters dominate, with their number representing 30 per cent of the total electorate -- which is approximately 450,000. The Yadavs, Rajputs, Bhumihars and the lower castes make up the rest.

The RJD office at Babunia Road is crammed with enthusiastic party workers, mostly belonging to Shahabuddin's community. Questioned about his electoral prospects, Javed Beg, a lecturer at the local HPR college and a follower of the party candidate, says: "Shahabuddinji has no rivals. He will win hands down because he enjoys the voters's confidence in four of the six assembly segments."

When asked to explain why only the RJD's flags and banners were seen in Siwan, Beg replied, "Because the others have given up knowing Mohammed Shahabuddin is invincible."

But invincibility is certainly not evident in the minds of non-Muslim voters. Says Gyan Prakash, a fruit-seller on the Chapra Road intersection, "Babuji, please visit Siwan during night-time. Yahan goliyan ka gargarahat goonjate hain (the staccato chatter of automatic gunfire reverberates in this town)." Asked who was responsible for it, Gyan Prakash unhesitatingly named Shahabuddin.

On Babunia Road, a prosperous tyre-dealer said when he opened his showroom four days ago, RJD banners were hung across the showroom's signboard. Later, two motorcycle-borne RJD workers warned him that if the banners and flags were removed the tyre dealer would have to pay a heavy price. The tyre-dealer got the message loud and clear and is keeping quiet.

But when asked which candidate he would vote for, the tyre-dealer said, "I will vote for a stable candidate who will not tolerate goondaism in this town. Siwan has enough of goondas and criminals."

Thus, even as the RJD candidate's election campaign ended on a forceful note, whether the conduct of fair polls will ensure Shahabuddin's victory is anybody's guess. A bookstall owner at Siwan railway station claimed that Shahabuddin's men had discouraged people from voting and that they had captured booths en masse and rigged the election. He said if the people were allowed to vote freely, which was a remote possibility, "Shahabuddin ko sadma pahunchega (Shahabuddin would receive a rude surprise)."

However, animosity is something which does not seem to bother the RJD candidate. A group of intellectuals including film director Mrinal Sen appealed to the Election Commission last fortnight to disqualify Shahabuddin for his alleged involvement in over four dozen criminal cases including the brutal murder of Chandra Shekhar, the former president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University students union.

EARLIER REPORTS:
Crime and politics
'Mohammed Shahabuddin should not contest poll'

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