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

Pappu Yadav at his office the night before voting

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 other's, sideways, as the car zips at top speed. Only that the two men before us - campaign managers of Purnea's prime candidate, former don and five-time MP, Pappu Yadav - are simply sharing the phone handset, between two ears, during a conversation that is anything but intimate.

They could put the phone on speaker. But that would mean I can hear what's being said from the other end. I'd rather not. We are headed to Rajesh Ranjan, aka Pappu's election HQ, Arjun Bhavan, in the city centre, the night before Purnea in Bihar goes to polls.

Or, rather the same day as the elections, since it's around 2.30 am, effectively April 26. "Qatl ki raat (night of murder)," as one of Pappu's campaigners puts it to us later. We're semi-convinced he didn't mean this literally.

Just 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 "raid" at a hotel nearby, by cops - "the force is increasing."

The DSP, referred to here as "Singham", is doing the rounds. Mainly in search of cash. Or if the candidates are still canvassing, which must stop 48 hours before voting.

The candidate, during this time, is at best allowed the company of a driver, and a bodyguard, if in public. Pappu isn't 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 move.

We 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 Pappu's close associates sombrely chilling with him, before he ushers us into his inner chamber.

The intention, for us, is to quietly merge with the hundred mosquitoes in the "war room" as they discuss data, demographic distribution, and other such last-minute nitty-gritty around poll-booth management.

Not a Manchurian candidate

Having been elected from the neighbouring Madhepura, in 2014, Pappu lost his seat in 2019. He's returned to Purnea since the '90s, when he won from here twice, once on a Samajwadi Party (SP) ticket.

In 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 2013.

Pappu has previously been with Lalu Prasad Yadav's RJD. Earlier in the year, he joined the Congress, which is allied with RJD in the INDIA bloc.

Congress didn't offer him a ticket from Purnea. His wife, Ranjeet Ranjan, who can't campaign for him, is a Rajya Sabha MP, with the Congress.

He fielded himself as an Independent - opposite JD(U)'s incumbent Santosh Kumar Kushwaha, fighting for a third term; and RJD's Bima Bharti who, until recently, used to be with JD(U) herself, which in turn is part of the BJP-led NDA grouping.

This 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 not
North India.

For a national election wholly centred on the BJP - whether an Independent, Pappu, could pass a miracle test has had the national press descend on Purnea, mainly to follow this wild card entry. Outcomes/results apart, he is the more interesting story.

One ought to be deeply wary of spot-polls, but it appears every person we casually ask for their voting preference, all of them male, alternate between Pappu and JD(U). The anti-incumbency factor for JD(U)'s Kushwaha, who won his second term with over 50 per cent vote share, is evident.

That said, can't deny the famed personal appeal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in these parts either. As a local wit summed it up, "Kushwaha majboori hai, Modi zaroori hai! (Kushwaha is a compulsion; Modi's a necessity!)."

Modi has also personally campaigned in Purnea. Which makes one of Pappu's campaign managers say, "Ek akela sab pe bhari! (One man against everyone!)." Something that's usually said for Modi himself, by his supporters, instead.

Snoozing in war-room

Without 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 2.30 am, when a wailing woman arrives at his campaign office.

It seems she's lost someone in her family. Much of Pappu's 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 money.

His 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 war-room is, however, centred equally on the young, and female voters.

Pappu confesses to his coterie that he's surprised by women voters veering towards him. I'm guessing they've been wary in the past? Once a dreaded don, he's had close to 100 cases registered against him, ranging from kidnapping, and extortion to murder (as per his election affidavit).

His yes-men 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 chair - sometimes with his mouth wide open, or pouting in deep contemplation. "He's slept for max 10 hours over the past seven days," we're told.

Hearing a video of a village mukhia/headman suggesting how there's no one like Pappu, he suddenly slips out of his slumber, and blasts, "B'''''''', what do people in Delhi and Bombay know? There is no one like me!" Ignoring the jibe, we remain the quiet mosquito in the room.

2013
Year Yadav was acquitted of Ajit Sarkar's murder

Elections in digital India!

That 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 money.

That said, it appears from informed locals that UPI transactions have made these petty cash transfers easier still - delivered from phone to phone, rather than party office to home. So, if there's no cash found in the car's dicky, it doesn't mean it didn't reach where it was intended!