Lok Sabha elections | 39/40: What about the one?

Congress’s Mohammed Dr Jawed (standing) is seeking re-election from the Muslim-majority constituency

The best way to tell that you've crossed the border from Bengal to Bihar, driving down Siliguri's Bagdogra airport - even without looking for the toll booth - is to casually study flags that line the highway, shops, constructions, all across. Simple vexillology, as it were. At some point, quite simply, the saffron-green of the BJP's lotus, and obviously the tricolour with Trinamool Congress's election symbol, simply recede to a zero. But for a few BJP flags, and fewer INC's "haath chhaap" tricolour still.

You know you're in Bihar, specifically Kishanganj. What unites with Bengal, though, are the triangular ‘bhagwa dwaj' (saffron flags) - with Lord Ram, or Hanuman, as with Chhatrapati Shivaji in rural Maharashtra - flying, throughout. The name Kishanganj is so generic, like the district itself, that a colleague in Mumbai told us they'd heard of it. Surely, in a Bollywood movie - to denote a typical small town/village, like Ramgarh in Sholay! That said, Kishanganj also remains among the most backward districts in India, and Bihar, at any rate, which is already the most backward among states. What's so special?

Top candidates

Uniformly agrarian Kishanganj, in north eastern Bihar, was an outlier in 2019 elections. BJP-led NDA swept the Lok Sabha polls in Bihar, with 39/40 seats. What about the one seat that kept them from a clean sweep? That was Kishanganj.

Kishanganj's dilapidated Aligarh Muslim University campus

The reason is kinda obvious. And for that too, you needn't study demography as much as simply look at the top candidates in the fray, in 2024 - INC's Dr Mohammed Jawed; Mujahid Alam from Nitish Kumar's JD(U), that's now part of NDA; and Akhtarul Iman from Hyderabad's AIMIM, that's evidently made deep inroads into the rural parts.

AIMIM's Asaduddin Owaisi had camped in Kishanganj for three days to wrap the campaign. Rahul Gandhi had walked through Kishanganj for his Bharat Jodo Yatra. It's not like BJP has never won from here - Shahnawaz Hussain has been elected once (1999). INC's Dr Jawed, locally called ‘Doctor Sahib', is seeking re-election from the Muslim-majority constituency. The town goes to polls on April 26. Which explains why it looks even deader, the day before - whether at the eatery self-explanatorily named, Family Restaurant, or the plusher Hotel Daftari Palace.

The cops, overestimating our worth, have checked the boot of our car for possible cash, more than once. Dr Jawed says he can't meet, because that would be a violation of the electoral code. "All eyes, from the national to the regional party are on us," his assistant tells us, offering to send over a volunteer, who's on his way, to take us around. Only to return with another apology, "Somebody will certainly take a photo of him with you, and it'll be another electoral code violation. The same gentleman has been fined eight times, already. He may not care for the ninth time. But you might get into trouble." Fair point.

Health and education

As with several Indian Tier IV towns, the only thing architecturally majestic you come across in Kishanganj is the presence of the government - the railway station, the DM's office, even the local post office. Despite a relatively low literacy rate, the town seems full of schools, including a top-end DPS (Delhi Public School), whose bus passes us by.

The gamechanger, however, is a centre for Aligarh Muslim University, that's come up in Kishanganj. We excitedly drive over to the campus. To find a small, dilapidated structure, with broken window panes, housing a girls' hostel, along with an "academic block" inside the same building. No, this cannot be the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU)! "No, it's not," Alam Mohd Shahzad, who works at the institute, tells us.

"In 2013, we were granted an AMU by Central government. The 100-acre campus was supposed to come up. The land usage got blocked due to environmental concerns. This make-shift thing has been given to us since, by the state government. We only offer one course, an MBA, here. The girls in the hostel are mostly from Uttar Pradesh. They don't have a vote in Kishanganj," Shahzad says, pointing to a new girls' hostel that should start soon. Likewise, an All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) was promised for Kishanganj: "These are jumlas. There is an AIIMS in (nearby) Darbhanga as well; still not operational," Shahzad adds.

Caste still central, of course

In 2023, Bihar became the first state to release its caste composition survey. Among its revelations was how Muslims in the state identify themselves with their caste, first. A political volunteer, on condition of anonymity, tells us, "Most Muslims in Kishanganj are pasmandas (backward caste). There are also the same castes, between Hindus and Muslims. A key demand of Dr Jawed is reservation for the Surjapuri community."

For a town bordering Bengal, the question of "illegal migrants" comes up in the context of Kishanganj as well. You do bump into several Bengalis. They go by the Shershabadia community. "We don't vote here," they tell us. But Kishanganjis are equivocal on how "it's such an aman-pasandi (peace-loving) place," as the street vendor Chirag Ali also puts it. As do others.

Ask them who'll they vote for? The cryptic answers are hilarious: "Not teer [JD(U)]," as per Shahzad. "Full pant. Not jeans pant," goes Pandit-ji, laughing, and then whispering into our ears, BJP, which is technically not even contesting from Kishanganj.

April 26
Day town goes to the polls