Lok Sabha elections 2024: Inside an ex-don’s den on polling day

In what could be a rather erotic moment way past midnight we look away a little as the two men in the front seats of our car lock their foreheads into each otherrsquos sideways as the car zips at top speed Only that the two men before usmdashcampaign managers of Purnearsquos prime candidate former don and fivetime MP Pappu Yadavmdashare simply sharing the phone handset between two ears during a conversation that is anything but intimateThey could put the phone on speaker But that would mean I can hear whatrsquos being said from the other end Irsquod rather not We are headed to Rajesh Ranjan aka Pappursquos election HQ Arjun Bhavan in the city centre the night before Purnea in Bihar goes to pollsOr rather the same day as the elections since itrsquos around 230 am effectively April 26 ldquoQatl ki raat night of murderrdquo as one of Pappursquos campaigners puts it to us later Wersquore semiconvinced he didnrsquot mean this literallyJust that our car comes to a sudden halt Three men push into the backseat The lovers in the front have jumped out once informed about a ldquoraidrdquo at a hotel nearby by copsmdashldquothe force is increasingrdquoThe DSP referred to here as ldquoSinghamrdquo is doing the rounds Mainly in search of cash Or if the candidates are still canvassing which must stop 48 hours before votingThe candidate during this time is at best allowed the company of a driver and a bodyguard if in public Pappu isnrsquot a stickler for every such technicality Earlier in the day the cops had disbanded his convoy His volunteers had raised slogans on the street protesting this moveWe walked down to his office through a dark alley Maybe the coppers have left Or that was a false alarm There is a sizeable crowd of Pappursquos close associates sombrely chilling with him before he ushers us into his inner chamberThe intention for us is to quietly merge with the hundred mosquitoes in the ldquowar roomrdquo as they discuss data demographic distribution and other such lastminute nittygritty around pollbooth managementNot a Manchurian candidateHaving been elected from the neighbouring Madhepura in 2014 Pappu lost his seat in 2019 Hersquos returned to Purnea since the rsquo90s when he won from here twice once on a Samajwadi Party SP ticketIn 1998 he was accused of the murder of the local former MLA Ajit Sarkar of CPI M For which he also spent over a decade in prison before getting acquitted in the case by the Patna High Court in 2013Pappu has previously been with Lalu Prasad Yadavrsquos RJD Earlier in the year he joined the Congress which is allied with RJD in the INDIA blocCongress didnrsquot offer him a ticket from Purnea His wife Ranjeet Ranjan who canrsquot campaign for him is a Rajya Sabha MP with the CongressHe fielded himself as an Independentmdashopposite JDUrsquos incumbent Santosh Kumar Kushwaha fighting for a third term and RJDrsquos Bima Bharti who until recently used to be with JDU herself which in turn is part of the BJPled NDA groupingThis electoral math emanating from all of the above has made Purnea in the Seemachal region by all accounts one of the hottest contested seats in Bihar if notNorth IndiaFor a national election wholly centred on the BJPmdashwhether an Independent Pappu could pass a miracle test has had the national press descend on Purnea mainly to follow this wild card entry Outcomesresults apart he is the more interesting storyOne ought to be deeply wary of spotpolls but it appears every person we casually ask for their voting preference all of them male alternate between Pappu and JDU The antiincumbency factor for JDUrsquos Kushwaha who won his second term with over 50 per cent vote share is evidentThat said canrsquot deny the famed personal appeal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in these parts either As a local wit summed it up ldquoKushwaha majboori hai Modi zaroori hai Kushwaha is a compulsion Modirsquos a necessityrdquoModi has also personally campaigned in Purnea Which makes one of Pappursquos campaign managers say ldquoEk akela sab pe bhari One man against everyonerdquo Something thatrsquos usually said for Modi himself by his supporters insteadSnoozing in warroomWithout the backing of any political party Pappu is relying on his personal connect promising direct access to voters As you can tell even at around 230 am when a wailing woman arrives at his campaign officeIt seems shersquos lost someone in her family Much of Pappursquos reputation or infamy emerges from him taking on local medical doctors in case they fail to treat the poor well or at all for lack of moneyHis election symbol is kaichi scissors which is what he intends to do with RJD cutting into their core base of Muslim and Yadav votes The discussion in the warroom is however centred equally on the young and female votersPappu confesses to his coterie that hersquos surprised by women voters veering towards him Irsquom guessing theyrsquove been wary in the past Once a dreaded don hersquos had close to 100 cases registered against him ranging from kidnapping and extortion to murder as per his election affidavitHis yesmen add on with similar claims about his popularity from their private recce of the constituency during the day while Pappu passes in and out of sleep in his chairmdashsometimes with his mouth wide open or pouting in deep contemplation ldquoHersquos slept for max 10 hours over the past seven daysrdquo wersquore toldHearing a video of a village mukhiaheadman suggesting how therersquos no one like Pappu he suddenly slips out of his slumber and blasts ldquoB what do people in Delhi and Bombay know There is no one like merdquo Ignoring the jibe we remain the quiet mosquito in the room2013Year Yadav was acquitted of Ajit Sarkarrsquos murderElections in digital IndiaThat cash is often handed to voters in lieu of votes is one of the badly kept secrets of Indian elections Cops in Bihar we noticed in the case of Purnea and Kishanganj do a fine job of constant patrolling checking on the boots of cars and checking on the movements of moneyThat said it appears from informed locals that UPI transactions have made these petty cash transfers easier stillmdashdelivered from phone to phone rather than party office to home So if therersquos no cash found in the carrsquos dicky it doesnrsquot mean it didnrsquot reach where it was intended