View-point

On the Campaign Trail in Bihar

Bihar and the elections. Why does it conjure up images of criminals, hoodlums, booth capturing, re-poll? Everything that is opposed to what the Election Commission would term as fair and peaceful polls. For the uninitiated, the election anywhere can be quite an overwhelming experience, daunting in parts but in Bihar only the brave can venture into it. Having campaigned in four Lok Sabha elections before the 2004 Lok Sabha elections this April, though not easy, as always, it was full of excitement, with new lessons to be learnt, tiring, unpredictable, yet never a dull moment.

The excitement of course starts on the nomination day itself, when the mood for the election is set. However, with the nominations over and everyone quite charged, it was time to get down to brasstacks. It was time to meticulously plan, fourteen days of campaigning – public meetings, sabhas, rallies, distribution of publicity material and the final planning for polling day. The Congress Party is full of very able enthusiastic and fairly committed people – young and old. What I have learnt over the years is how one needed to channelize this enthusiasm and motivate the party workers which really was a big task. Every morning would start with meetings at the party office with party office-bearers to set up a strategy. In rural India, the campaigning work is fairly different from the campaigning in urban cities. The roads in the villages are in such poor conditions (always a source of great anguish to the villagers and sometimes even having a bearing on the election results). There are no sophisticated means of informing people in far-flung panchayats about meetings and sabhas. So almost like in ancient India when something needed to be conveyed in villages a drum would be beaten and people would be read a ‘farman’ likewise we would have to send a team of people with microphones on a jeep to inform villagers about a meeting. With my team of Youth Congress, Mahila Congress and NSUI workers, armed with the Congress manifesto and talking points, we would cover 10-12 villages in a day – the heat of April no deterrent. Sometimes it was playing a cricket match in a rice field, or standing atop tables improvised as rostrums to speak to an assembled crowd. One evening having got late to a meeting – I even addressed a crowd in pitch darkness. Neither the villagers could see me nor I could see them. It was unreal – yet the reality that is India.

Of course polling day is the culmination of all the 14 days of campaigning and two days of frenzied activity. So much has to be done. One has to ensure that people get their identity cards and polling booth numbers. Devoted polling agents need to be identified and expenses need to be disbursed. All this was managed because my team of devoted and committed Congress workers, were raring to go.

An M.P. constituency is vast. Trying to cover the entire area in 14 days is not feasible. Everyone wants to meet the candidate. What I have learnt over the years and which can be used as a mantra for every politician. If you get a mandate for five years, visit you constituency so often. Do so much work (it is possible if someone wants to) that villagers get familiar with your presence and enjoy the benefits of your being their representative. And then come election time – just relax and do the bare minimum. There is no way you will lose the election. Maybe I live in an idealistic world – but better then that become cynical or even worse win an election only through unfair means. Maybe I still have a lot to learn, but I am never going to give up on my beliefs.