PATNA: Amid the cacophony of the assembly polls, Bihar’s highly educated women are entering the electoral fray with a resolve to disseminate their messages among people ‘loud and clear’ and win their seats.
Though these new entrants come from political backgrounds, they are not banking on caste arithmetic rather they want to ensure their victory in election by promising development, better education and health facilities.
For example, Shivani Shukla, 28, a postgraduate in law from the UK, is making her debut in poll politics from Lalganj constituency in Vaishali district. Daughter of jailed former MLA Vijay Kumar Shukla alias Munna Shukla, Shivani has been fielded by Lalu Prasad’s RJD.
Shivani visited Lalu-Rabri house personally to collect party symbol and filed her nomination on October 17. She is fighting from the seat which her father had represented as an Independent in 2000. “I am thankful to Lalu Ji and Tejashwi Ji for giving this opportunity to fight election on RJD symbol,” she told the media.
Shivani is pitted against incumbent BJP MLA Sanjay Singh. The seat is poised to witness an intense fight as Shivani comes from upper caste Bhumihar, which has sizeable number in the seat. Her father, who was once debarred from contesting election after being convicted in a murder case, won twice.
A native of Khanjahachak village under Lalganj block, Shivani completed her early education at Delhi Public School, RK Puram. She went on to pursue a BA LLB from Alliance University, Bengaluru, before earning an LLM from the University of Leeds, UK. She said her decision to contest election is driven by a desire to bring a ‘politics of education and development’ to Bihar.
Another well-educated woman debutant is Lata Singh, 36, who is in the fray from Asthawan constituency in Nalanda on the ticket of Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj Party. Lata, daughter of former union minister Ram Chandra Prasad Singh, once a trusted aide of CM Nitish Kumar, is a practicing lawyer in the Supreme Court.
She is contesting election for the first time. Lata’s sister Lipi Singh is a Bihar cadre IPS officer. “I have decided to contest election on the request of people of Asthawan. I have been working with them for long. I can feel their pain and their sufferings as I have been with them,” she said.
She said that she would focus on development, education, health and women empowerment. “Educated people should come forward and join politics. They can go into the root cause of the problems, analyse them and resolve them in a better way,” she added.
Lata will take on incumbent JD(U) MLA Jitendra Kumar. She comes from Nitish Kumar’s caste— Kurmi and also from his home district, Nalanda.
Though Pushpam Priya Choudhary, 38, founder of The Plurals Party, unsuccessful contested previous Bihar assembly election, she is ready to accept the challenge this time again.
An alumnus of London School of Economics and Political Science, Institute of Development Studies, is a native of Darbhanga district. Pushpam’s father Vinod Kumar Choudhary is a former JD(U) MLC. She can be spotted wearing black attire and a mask all the time.
She said that she would remove her mask only after winning an election. She has filed her nomination papers from Darbhanga assembly seat. She announced that her party would contest all the 243-assembly seats, half of them reserved for women.
Denied ticket, aspirant tears clothes, breaks down
High-voltage drama unfolded outside the residence of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad in Patna on Sunday when an aspirant broke down, tore his cloths and dropped to the ground after being denied a ticket for the Bihar polls. Madan Shah, an RJD leader, reached the residence of former CMs Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi on Sunday morning and wished to meet the party supremo. However, security personnel did not allow him inside. A clip from the scene has since gone viral
