Kalyan Bigha and Phulwaria, a tale of two villages and their changing fortunes

Two villages stand out as the cynosure of all eyes among the 45,000 villages that dot Bihar’s predominantly agrarian landscape — Kalyan Bigha, and Phulwaria. Their development and growth has matched the political fortunes of their famous sons. Incumbent Chief Minister Nitish Kumar hails from Kalyan Bigha in Nalanda district. His predecessor and former CM Lalu Prasad hails from Phulwaria village in Gopalganj district.

Kalyan Bigha falls under the Harnaut Assembly Constituency. Mr. Kumar’s two-storey concrete house looks not unlike the many such houses seen in the State capital or other towns. Steel handrails flank the few steps leading up to the entrance, with a statue of Lord Ganesha installed on the front wall. An electricity meter is visible, and an air-conditioning vent fitted with an exhaust fan is seen a metre away, on the external facade. Two white water tanks are fixed atop the edifice.

The forecourt features a pond in the shade of neat rows of trees on all sides, with painted cement chairs, and an expansive temple at one end. Nearby are two parks. The first is named after Mr. Kumar’s father, the ‘Kaviraj Ramlakhan Singh Smriti Vaatika’, with busts of Mr. Kumar’s late parents and wife placed within; the other is well-equipped for children. Both were locked when this reporter visited. Outside Mr. Kumar’s ancestral home is a pucca concretised road, with a branch of the State Bank of India a few steps away.

Round-the-clock supply of electricity, and street lights, make Kalyan Bigha the object of envy in other, less fortunate villages. Midway up a high, robust telephone tower is a vapour light. With a primary and higher secondary school, and several other projects, Kalyan Bigha stands out as an island of amiable development in the din of Bihar’s innumerable, dusty, and poverty-stricken lanes and bylanes. “My relatives admire and envy Kalyan Bigha when they visit,” Subodh Pandey, a middle-aged priest, said.

“Nitish Kumar-ji comes to Kalyan Bigha at least thrice a year — on November 29, January 1, and May 14 — to pay floral tributes to his father Ramlakhan babu, mother Parmeshwari Devi, and wife Manju Sinha on their respective death anniversaries,” Mr. Pandey, who claimed he was Mr. Kumar’s family priest, said.

“My late father, Shambhu Pandey was also the family priest for Mr. Kumar’s family,” he said, performing the ‘Akshay Navmi’ puja for woman from the vilalge under a gooseberry tree outside the Chief Minister’s house on the early winter morning of October 30.

“The village today has everything a good town needs. However, earlier, before 2005, the situation was very pitiable and pathetic here. We did not venture out even during the day when the RJD was in power,” Mr. Pandey said.

The familiar face of sexagenarian Sitaram Singh, caretaker of Mr. Kumar’s house for many years, was missing. “He is still alive but currently someone else, a young man, looks after the house,” Mr. Pandey said, slowly moving away, having finished the puja.

Kalyan Bigha now also boasts an excellent road to Patna, a police station, and a shooting range for girls.

“Any journey that used to take 2.5 hours can now be completed in 20 minutes,” Vikas Kumar, who grew up in Kalyan Bigha, said. Now a qualified physician, Dr. Kumar returned two months ago to open a small clinic near the CM’s house.

The village is dominated by Mr. Kumar’s own Kurmi Other Backward Class (OBC) community, and the CM’s presence is visible everywhere. “Other lower castes are also in the village, but we are all here for Nitish Kumar again as the Chief Minister of Bihar,” a group of young boys sitting on a bench at the periphery of the pond said.

Mr. Kumar first won from the Harnaut Assembly constituency in 1985 on a Lok Dal ticket. In the upcoming Assembly election, the JD(U)’s sitting MLA, Harinarayan Singh, is being fielded again from the seat — for the 10th time. “If he wins the Assembly seat for the 10th time, he will set a record in Bihar,” Maheshwar Prasad, 59, said at market in Harnaut.

Mr. Singh is pitted against the Mahagathbandhan candidate Arun Bind, while the Jan Suraaj Party has nominated Kamlesh Paswan from the constituency. “The contest here is between the JD(U) and Mahagathbandhan candidate only,” Satish Singh, proprietor of a small business in the Nagarnausa locality, said with a smile.

Harnaut goes to the polls in the first phase of the Bihar Assembly election on November 6.  

Phulwaria waits

About 20 km away from Gopalganj town is the village of Phulwaria, which falls under the Hathua Assembly constituency. Former CM and Opposition RJD founder and supremo Lalu Prasad hails from Phulwaria.

Mr. Yadav’s palatial house in Phulwaria has a vast forecourt, but the metalled road to the village, broken in some places, now has potholes, with overflowing drains. “The village was deliberately neglected by the present regime. When Lalu Prasad or his party, the RJD, was in power, Phulwaria used to present a different picture — a picture of development and growth. We have had everything in the village, from primary health centre to schools for children,” Prahalad Yadav, 32, a villager, said.

“Earlier, leaders of different political parties, and journalists, even from Delhi, would visit Phulwaria. We were and still are proud residents of the village of Phulwaria in Gopalgnaj, which is synonymous with our leader, Lalu Prasad-ji and his family,” Mr. Prahalad Yadav told this correspondent over a phone call.

When asked if the RJD leader’s family came to the village these days, septuagenarian Sanyog Yadav and others in a group on their way to Gopalganj to buy medicines, said they certainly did. “Why not? They come here whenever they get time. How can anyone be cut off from his roots?” a villager in the group said.

The RJD has fielded sitting MLA Rajesh Kumar Singh, who defeated the JD(U)’s Ramsewak Singh in the 2020 Assembly election. Apart from members of the Yadav community, the forward castes, Muslims, and Extremely Backward Class (EBC) voters are also present in sizeable numbers in the constituency.

“We will repeat our sitting candidate this time,” Shambhu Pandey, a villager, said on a phone call, adding, “It’s a prestige issue for Lalu Prasad, and Phulwaria’s name as well.”

Hathua too goes to the polls in the first phase of the Bihar Assembly election on November 6.