On International Women’s Day, people of Bihar woke up to a two-page advertisement in most of the newspapers on Sunday. It read, “Plurals has arrived,” with the tag-line, “Love Bihar, Hate Politics”.
As the Bihar Assembly election is months away, it was a call from a party which declared its president Pushpam Priya Choudhary the chief ministerial candidate.
“You focus on climbing the ladder, and let us deal with the snakes,” said Pushpam Priya Choudhary, president of Plurals.
The party says in the advertisement that it enters the election because “Bihar Deserves Better, And Better is Possible”. Earlier, none had heard the name of the party or that of its president.
The advertisement in a local edition of a national English daily also carried a photograph of Pushpam Priya Choudhary, leaning on a table with a bookshelf in the background. It said, “Plurals — everyone governs. Love Bihar, Hate Politics — join the most progressive political party.”
“Join me to take the power back,” it added, detailing Pushpam Priya Choudhary’s social media accounts and a toll-free number (1800-313-0082) which, when dialled, kept saying, “You seem to have dialled the wrong number. Please check the number you’ve dialled”.
In the second page, she has posted her another picture sitting beneath a statue of Mahatma Gandhi. “The Revolution has begun — A party that manifests positive politics & policy making,” said the advertisement with another tag-line, “Take interest, to control politics, else it will continue to control you”.
She has also shown her educational background as “MA Development Studies — Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK” and Master of Public Administration — London School of Economics & Political Science, UK”.
In a signed letter written in Hindi, she has said a “chief ministerial candidate is writing to her fellow citizens”. “Keep it carefully because it is a guarantee for a better future for you and your children... The future which you were to get from your childhood... I’m here to return you that future...,” she said.
She has pledged to make Bihar “the most developed State of the country by 2025 and its development index as good as any European country by 2030”. “Plurals is not only a political movement, but an exercise to make the country disease-free, and this exercise begins with an effort to make the heart of the country disease-free,” she adds in the letter addressed to “Dear friends”.
Pushpam Priya Choudhary is daughter of former JD(U) MLC from the Darbhanga Graduate constituency Vinod Kumar Choudhary. A professor of sociology, Mr. Choudhary hails from New Balbhadrapur area of Laheriyasarai in Darbhanga district. He has been politically and socially active there for several years. His father Umakant Choudhary was also in politics and said to be close to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar during their Samata Party days. Several calls to Mr. Vinod Kumar Choudhary were not returned.
Leaders across parties were surprised. “Yes, I was really surprised to see the picture of a young lady claiming herself as chief ministerial candidate and appealing to the people to join her party with catchy tag-lines,” said a senior Congress leader.
A JD(U) leader said, “I didn’t know she was the daughter of Vinod Kumar Choudhary, who was our MLC in 2014,” he said.
A BJP leader from Mithilanchal quipped, “I hope PK [election strategist Prashant Kishor] is not behind all this.”
