Dumpy skids on shifting water ballet

Santanu Saraswati
Sarath (Deoghar), May 17—The Bhumihars of Sarath Assembly segment are practicing their own form of water sport. In 2000, when the BJP candidate Udayshankar Singh alias Chunna Singh and his voters cast their votes in the name of new Jharkhand State, the Bhumihars retaliated by throwing mugs of water on the ballot boxes. As a result repelling had to be ordered in as many as ten booths of the Sarath constituency, the don’s stronghold.
This year, the Bhumihars and the Brahmins have decided to do the same but unlike the last Assembly polls in united Bihar. They were with Chunna, before the last Assembly polls, for his muscle power and his wife, a Bengali schoolteacher—famous for some social works in the area—but shifted their allegiance to Shashank Shekhar Bhokta, the JMM-S candidate.
This time too, the Bhumihars and the Brahmins have decided to follow the diktats of Bhokta for sailing the JMM-S chief Shibu Soren to victory. They decided to follow because they are disillusioned with the BJP and its candidate Romesh Hembrom.
The water sport is an elaborate game and requires meticulous planning. At dusk in Sarath, a group of Bhumihars and Brahmins sit on a charpoy in front of Bhokta’s house. Bhokta, a Bhumihar by caste, calls a boy, barely in teens, and tells him: “You and five others will stand guard near the booth with two buckets of water.”
“If Chunna and his men try to barge in the booth to false and bogus voting, throw water into them immediately. We can’t take any risk for free and fair polling. Let’s hope the police do their jobs and prevent him from bogus voting.”
Other willing participants in this game are Dalits of the constituency. Dayaram Bhaskar had reached the booth last year to find that his vote had been cast. He desperately called the polling officer but got no response. Ramu Fauzdar, a fellow Dalit, also had the same experience. But unlike their upper caste neighbours, the Dalits are still behind the JMM-S. The JMM-S candidate won the polls by a thin margin. This time the party chief is about to get the support of the minorities too. The Muslims, here, are all out against the BJP for their heinous act in Gujarat. And in this by-poll, caste and muscle power would become the main weapon in Sarath.
The BJP has fielded Romesh Hembrom mainly because of two reasons. First, he could be a “yes man” of the Chief Minister and the latter will play the strings from behind. Secondly, Romesh, according to a BJP insider, has assured to spend near about Rs 5 lac from his own. And this money will come from his father the ex-Excise chairman, Sonelal Hembrom.
This by poll may be a litmus test for Babulal Marandi, but much more to Chunna Singh, for getting a ministerial rank in NDA Government at Ranchi but if everything goes right, the JMM-S chief would gain a large margin from Sarath.
santanu_saraswati@hotmail.com