Bihar polls: Singer Maithili Thakur hopes to make up for political experience in Alinagar

Alinagar, Nov 1 (PTI) When a petite teenager from Bihar began making waves in the world of music about a decade ago, few would have thought that the demure girl would end up in the rough and tumble of politics.

Maithili Thakur, who turned 25 just a few months ago, is not surprisingly one of the most talked-about candidates in the Bihar assembly elections.

"I am planning to build a house in Alinagar and make the place my home. My maternal roots are here. I do not want to live anywhere else", says Thakur, who is being targeted, primarily, for being an "outsider" in the assembly segment of Darbhanga district.

The singer-politician, who is fluent in the local dialect Maithili, has her roots in the adjoining district of Madhubani and, for some time, has been settled in Delhi along with her parents and siblings.

Although she joined the BJP only as late as October 14, ahead of the two-phased Bihar elections, political watchers began looking forward to her entry about a fortnight earlier.

On October 5, just a day before the elections were announced, her photo with BJP national general secretary Vinod Tawde and Union minister Nityanand Rai, a former state president of the party, went viral on social media.

Tawde, who is the party's in charge for Bihar, wrote on X, "Famous singer Maithili Thakur belongs to one of the families which had fled Bihar in the wake of Lalu raj that began in 1995. With changed times, she wants to come back".

Although the announcement of her candidature was several days away, the cat was let out of the bag by Mishri Lal Yadav, the sitting BJP MLA from Alinagar who quit the party four days ahead of Thakur's joining.

Yadav alleged that the BJP was "giving a raw deal to Dalits and backwards" and while he took no names, the proverbial writing on the wall was there for all to see.

Thakur is a Brahmin. And so is her main rival Binod Mishra, the RJD candidate, at least 35 years her senior, whose party affiliation assures him of solid support of Muslims and Yadavs.

The three communities - Brahmin, Muslims and Yadavs- are said to be the most populous in the constituency.

The assembly segment came into being only after the 2008 delimitation, and in the first two assembly polls that it faced, in 2010 and 2015, the winner was veteran RJD leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui.

In 2020, the party fielded Mishra, who lost to Mishri Lal Yadav, a candidate of the then NDA constituent Vikassheel Insan Party.

Referring to Yadav, who hails from adjoining Keoti, Mishra told PTI Bhasha, "For the last five years, the people of Alinagar have paid the price of electing an outsider. They do not want to make the same mistake this time. Moreover, Maithili Thakur may be a great singer, but she is a novice in politics”.

Admittedly, the most talked-about candidate in the constituency, where altogether a dozen are in the fray, evinces more interest out of her singing abilities than her political skills.

Be it the filing of nomination papers or a rally where she shared the stage with Union Home Minister Amit Shah, people applauded her not for her speeches but for her soulful renditions.

Nonetheless, the BJP, with its famed election machinery, is backing her to the hilt. Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan, the party’s election in charge for the state assembly polls, is personally monitoring her campaign.

Pradhan had also offered an apology on Thakur’s behalf when Uttar Pradesh MLA Ketki Singh stoked a controversy that it was Maithili and not the “Mithila paag”, the traditional headgear of the area, that was “the pride” of the region.

Thakur’s naivete was all too evident when a video went viral in which she was caught eating “makhana” kept on a “Mithila paag”. She later came out with an explanation that the 'paag' was kept in place of a plate “by way of a conspiracy”.

Nonetheless, local BJP worker Kaushal Chaudhary said, “Maithili Thakur has a clean image which goes in her favour. Besides, the party activists will leave no stone unturned in ensuring her victory”.

Situated about 50 kms from the state headquarters of Darbhanga, Alinagar is frequently ravaged by floods in the rivers Kamala and Kosi. Its 2.84 lakh voters will decide the fate of 12 candidates on November 6, in the first phase of assembly polls. PTI KPM NAC BDC