On November 20, Deepak Prakash, 36, was sworn in as a minister in the new Bihar government without contesting the recently concluded assembly elections. His father, Upendra Kushwaha, 65, is an MP who has spent more than four decades in politics. His mother, Snehalata Kushwaha, contested the election from Sasaram and won. The family is part of the Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM), a regional party that contested six seats and won four.
The RLM is part of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which in Bihar is a conglomerate of four other parties: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Janata Dal (United), Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) and Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular).
The RLM secured only one ministerial berth which went to Prakash who helped his parents campaign. The software engineer, who graduated from MIT Manipal in 2011, has six months to get elected to the assembly. “I am not new to politics. I have seen my father up close and I have also been active in politics since 2019,” he says. “In terms of selecting me for a ministerial post, my father would be a better person to answer why the party made this decision.
His father asks people not to look at either caste or family but to “judge talent based on the caliber of a person”. He adds that many have entered politics because of their “family background” but lack the knowledge or interest to serve society.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, 74, now in his tenth term and whose son Nishant Kumar is not in politics, has always opposed dynastic rule. In fact, during the election campaign, Mr. Nitish even said that his son and wife – when she was alive – did not stay with him in his official bungalow. Yet 10 of his 26 ministers are from political families. This election saw parties from both sides of the political divide — the NDA and the INDIA Bloc — members of the family.
Potential and promise
Kushwaha is a prominent Other Backward Classes (OBC) leader in Bihar and his community has the second largest share in terms of voter support, after the Yadavs. He credits iconic socialist leader and two-time CM, the late Karpoori Thakur as his mentor, though Thakur never promoted his children.
Following backlash for promoting his son, Kushwaha issued a statement on 21 November accusing critics of “maliciousness and prejudice”. “People accused me of nepotism. This step was not only necessary but inevitable to save and maintain the existence and future of the party.” Without naming the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader, Tejashwi Yadav, 36, Lalu Prasad Yadav’s school dropout son, said, “Deepak Prakash is not a student who failed in school.” All voters need to do is “give him some time to live up to their trust,” he said.
During the RJD government, Samrat Choudhary was appointed as the Agriculture Minister in 1999 when he was neither a member of the legislature nor the council. It was subsequently removed due to the age difference. Samrat defected to the BJP about seven years ago, became an OBC leader and is now the Deputy CM and Home Minister in the Nitish government. This is the first time in 20 years that Nitish has gifted this portfolio to someone else.
Samrat is the son of veteran Koeri leader Shakuni Choudhary. He contested the elections after 15 years from the Tarapuru seat. His father was an MLA from Samta party, switched to Congress and later RJD, represented Tarapur six times.
Samrat Choudhary is the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar and the son of Samta Party legislator Shakuni Choudhary. File | Photo credit: ANI
The Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) saw its founder Jitan Ram Manjhi, 81, a Union minister, handing out tickets to his daughter-in-law Deepa Kumari, 38, who contested and won from the Imamganj seat; and her mother Jyoti Devi, 60, who won from the Barachatti seat. His son Santosh Kumar Suman (50) is a member of the Legislative Council and a minister in Nitish’s government.
At several campaign meetings, Deepa Kumari faced the issue of family politics. She stood her ground and said her mother got a ticket from the Janata Dal (United) in 2010. Her mother, she said, was devoted to SRI (system of rice intensification), an agro-ecological method of cultivation that uses less water but generates a higher yield than the dominant method.
Deepa Kumari, who hails from the Dalit community, said she was a district councilor for five years before her husband entered her life. In her media interactions, she was quick to target Lalu Prasad’s family, whom she claimed did not start from the grassroots. Tejashwi was a cricketer before entering politics. Lalu made his wife Rabri Devi CM overnight in 1997 when allegations surfaced that he was involved in a multi-crore fodder scam. She had no political experience then but survived as CM for seven years, she said.
From old hands to new
Another leader from Bihar who faced criticism for promoting his family members was the late Ram Vilas Paswan, who promoted his brothers Pashupati Kumar Paras (73) and the late Ram Chandra Paswan into politics. His son and Union Minister Chirag Paswan (43) of the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) is following in his footsteps. His brother-in-law Arun Bharti, 49, is an MP from the Jamui Lok Sabha seat and had given his nephew Simant Mrinal a ticket to contest from the Garkha constituency during the Assembly elections. In 2019, out of the party’s six MPs, three were from the Paswan family.
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In one interview, Chirag said, “I’m restless; I can’t avoid reality…” He joked that he tried other professions but failed. He said it was a double-edged sword: if someone like him did well, it was attributed to his parents; if he didn’t, people would say he sunk the family name.
Union minister and Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan, son of party founder Ram Vilas Paswan, accepts the ‘no baby’ tag, calling it a double-edged sword. File | Photo credit: PTI
Chetan Anand, 33, son of former MP and don-politician Anand Mohan, dubbed as Sher-e-Bihar in Kosi region, won from the Nabinagar Assembly seat on a Janata Dal (United) ticket.
Chetan won the 2020 assembly elections on an RJD ticket from the Sheohar seat but joined the Nitish Kumar camp last year in the trust vote. His mother, Lovely Anand, 59, is a JD(U) MP from the Sheohar Lok Sabha seat. Chetan has no hesitation in accepting that family politics is part of regional politics. “I started my political career when my father was in prison and I had no support. I created my political identity based on my hard work,” he says, adding that his mother became an MP much earlier than his father. “Let the people decide whether the family member in question is capable or not. People are wise enough to choose and they will always choose the right person regardless of caste, religion or whether they are from an influential family.”
Osama Shahab, 31, is another MLA with a family history of politics. He won the Raghunathpur seat on an RJD ticket. His father, the late Mohammad Shahabuddin, a don-turned-politician, once spread terror not only in Siwan but also in neighboring districts like Gopalganj and Saran.
His father was a four-time MP from Siwan and a two-time MLA from Ziradei constituency. Shahabuddin died while serving a life sentence in a double-murder case in Tihar Jail in May 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. “You call it nepotism, but I see it as the support of the people. My father is no longer with me and despite that I won the election. They still remember the good work he did for the people of Siwan,” Osama claims.
“on top”
Sanjay Kumar, former associate professor of political science at AN College, Patna, says that compared to other candidates, children of politicians have an upper hand because they have a well-established social and political set-up. “It takes time for new candidates to gain the trust of voters, while children of politicians already have a relationship with society. Another thing is that they are recognized in a bad way and in a good way,” he says.
For example, Tejashwi fought two consecutive elections with the label ‘jungle raj’ attached to the family name, despite having nothing to do with it. However, because of his family, he will get the Muslim-Yadav vote bank.
In 2021, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called political dynasties “the biggest enemies of democracy”.
