Modi a dominant factor, but Vaishya anger at ticket distribution puts NDA’s Lovely Anand in tight spot in Sheohar

As the cavalcade of north Bihar strongman Anand Mohan Singh and his wife Lovely Anand rolls into the Rajput-dominated village of Sonbarsha, in Tariyani block of Sheohar district, villagers greet them with enthusiasm before taking them to the shrine of local deity Patori Devi, where they claim 56 goats were sacrificed only last Dussehra. “Ask anything and she will grant it to you,” says a villager to Singh.

Lovely Anand, who was granted a ticket by the JD(U) to contest from Sheohar months after her husband was released from jail thanks to a tweak in rules by the Nitish Kumar government, may need these blessings and more to retain the Sheohar seat for the NDA. Sheohar votes on May 25.

Sheohar was earlier held by three-term BJP MP Rama Devi, a member of the Vaishya community, who make up almost a fourth of the seat’s electorate. The community, which has traditionally been sympathetic to the BJP, appears cross with the party not only for giving away the seat to the JD(U), but also to a non-Vaishya.

“Modi ji chha gaye hain, lekin Sheohar ko kha gaye hain (Modiji may be omnipresent, but he has abandoned Sheohar),” says Paldhani Sah, a Vaishya trader at Dhankaul bazaar.

Another Vaishya trader in the market, Lalbabu Sah, said, “Rama Devi did not do much work, but was approachable and used to help when needed. Plus, she was from the community, so we would vote. Lovely Anand is an outsider. Her son (Chetan Anand) is the Sheohar MLA. Did he even come and meet us after winning?”

When asked if the community would go against Modi for just this reason, Lalbabu said, “Modiji is winning 400 seats anyway. What difference will one seat make?”

What has also made the contest interesting is the RJD fielding a Vaishya, Ritu Jaiswal, the wife of a