The storming of the Bastille, the Russian Revolution or closer home, the Communist uprising in Nepal. Echoes of all these events can be found in Najibabad. The Red Brigade here has overrun the erstwhile feudal estate. Overriding other parties, including those backed by the former feudal overlords, the Left has been ruling this reserved seat since 1993.

The social churning is symbolic as well. Up on a hillock sits the ‘Quila’ (fort) of the erstwhile rulers, down in the Dalit basti is the house of the people’s “ruler”. Son of a Jatav peasant-turned-teacher, Master Ram Swarup Singh had won the seat on a CPM ticket for the last three terms, turning it into a Communist bastion. He died last August.

Desperate to retain the seat, the Communists too have succumbed to the lure of dynastic rule. Overriding apprehensions of comrades, the CPI(M) Politburo has chosen to field the late MLA’s son, Raj Kumar aka Raju, a political greenhorn.

A teacher in a government school at Pauri in Uttarakhand, 42-year-old Raju quit his job of 18 years to get into the rumble and tumble of UP politics. Raju claims he was reluctant to enter politics, but his late father’s supporters and party bosses urged him to take on his father’s mantle. “I want to finish the job he started,” he now says.

However, not everyone is happy with his candidature. According to sources, there is dissension in the party as veteran grassroots leader Comrade K S Toofan had expected to be nominated.

... contd.