Election day has also been the day of the don in Bihar. Not this time. History sheeters, and their family members, were routed in Bihar.
*Hina Sahab, RJD (Siwan)
The wife of former RJD MP Mohd Shahabuddin was fielded by the party after her husband was barred from contesting elections. Siwan had been represented by the incarcerated Shahabuddin from 1996 till 2004. Hina lost to JD(U) rebel and Independent candidate Om Prakash Yadav.
Shahabuddin, facing over 40 cases of murder, extortion and criminal intimidation, has been convicted in six cases including one of murder so far. Trials are on in other cases at a special court set up on the Siwan jail premises. The special court sentenced the MP to life on May 8, 2007, for the 1999 kidnapping and killing of Chhote Lal Gupta, a CPI(M-L) worker, which means Shahabuddin couldn?t contest himself.
*Vina Devi, LJP (Nawada)
She entered the poll arena after her husband Suraj Singh alias Surajbhan, a former MP from Balia, was barred from contesting. Surajbhan, a Bhumihar, had chosen Nawada for his wife, believing fellow Bhumihars would support her.Surajbhan was sentenced to life in the 1992 Rami Singh murder case.
*Ranjeet Ranjan, Congress (Supaul)
Though her husband Rajesh Ranjan aka Pappu Yadav was barred from contesting the Lok Sabha polls due to a murder conviction, he saw hope in Ranjeet, who had won the 2004 election from Saharsa on an LJP ticket. Ranjeet jumped to the Congress and contested from Supaul as the new poster girl of the withered Congress in Bihar, where she enjoyed a good reputation on account of her active role in Parliament and relief work during the Kosi floods. But her identity as Pappu Yadav?s wife did not stand her in good stead. Despite pulling big crowds, she lost by over 1.5 lakh votes.
*Shanti Priya, Congress-backed Independent (Purnea)
Pappu Yadav didn?t want to take chances, so even his mother Shanti Priya was forced to make a foray into politics to take on Ajit Sarkar?s wife Madhavi from Purnea. Pappu even got the Congress to support her candidature. However, Priya made most news when her affidavit recorded her age as 49, making her only seven years elder than her son. Both Priya and Madhavi lost.
*Lovely Anand, Congress (Sheohar)
The wife of former JD(U) MP Anand Mohan tried her luck from Sheohar on a Congress ticket after he was sentenced to life in the lynching to death of bureaucrat G Krishnaiah. However, Lovely Mohan, also a former MP, ended up forfeiting her security deposit at Sheohar.
*Munna Shukla, JD (U) (Vaishali)
Soon after the high court order quashing his life sentence in the G Krishnaiah lynching case, Vijay Kumar Shukla alias Munna Shukla, jumped into the fray yet again from Vaishali. In 2004, he had won the seat as an Independent. However, Shukla stood little chance against the RJD?s star minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, credited with the success of the UPA Government?s NREGA scheme.
*Prabhunath Singh, JD (U) (Maharajganj)
Everyone had thought Maharajganj would be a cakewalk for Prabhunath Singh, who was cleared in a row of cases last year and who was supposed to be riding the pro-Nitish Kumar wave. However, the RJD?s clever fielding of a distant relative against him, the intra-party resistance to his candidature and Singh?s own image as muscleman went against Singh.