Samastipur (Bihar)
She has caught the attention of everyone in Samastipur - from rickshaw drivers to college teachers to shopkeepers. Shambhavi Kunal Choudhary, 25, the NDA alliance candidate, contesting on Chirag Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) ticket, and the youngest aspirant in the fray in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls has woken up the sleepy town.
Sonu, 25, an e-rickshaw driver has high hopes. He feels that she being the same age as him will understand his problems.
Others are impressed with her qualifications. She is an alumna of Delhi School of Economics and Lady Shri Ram College (Delhi). The local teachers and traders feel she will have new ideas to offer.
RK Pandey, a manager in an automobile showroom, feels she brings freshness to the campaign. Navin Kumar, lecturer in a local degree college, says being educated, she will have a modern, progressive perspective. He hopes she would do something to improve the city’s dilapidated infrastructure.
Even the sitting MP from this seat, Prince Raj, of RJLP was just 30 years old when he won the election from here. Did the town have the same expectations from him when he came here, after the death of his father, Ram Chandra Paswan, who represented the constituency? “We had very high hopes of him, but he did not deliver,” said Navin Kumar, lecturer in a local college.
Youth power
But Kumar and Pandey feel that Shambhavi will be different because of her educational background. She has got off to a good start while the Congress, which has got this seat as part of Grand Alliance, is yet to finalise its candidate. Also, she comes from a political family – her father Ashok Choudhary, is a Minster in Nitish Kumar’s cabinet and a JD (U) leader
What could go against her is that she is an “outsider”. Her only connection to Samastipur is that her mother-in-law hails from here. Shambhavi does not think it is a disadvantage. “You can take the example of PM Modi. He is not from Varanasi and not even from UP. I think if you are an outsider, it gives you a better, unbiased perspective,” she says.
Many like tea vendor Shashi don’t take her seriously saying she will vanish. “Her election symbol is a helicopter, so she will be hawa hawai,” he says.
To this, Shambhavi retorts: “Helicopter is used in an emergency. I can come at the speed of one.”
Why is the daughter of a JD (U) leader contesting on an LJP (Ram Vilas) ticket? “Chirag Bhaiya (LJP) is young and as a young person you relate more with youth. That is what happened with me. He believes the only social identity you need is ‘Bihar First-Bihari First’. That impressed me when I was studying in Delhi where people used to say arre tum Bihari to lagti nahi (you don’t look like a Bihari),” she says.