Kalyan Bigha: Nitish Kumar’s village reaps rewards of CM’s legacy, fears change after 2025 polls

KALYAN BIGHA (NALANDA): A few men and women stand before the medicine counter at the Referral Hospital, located on the outskirts of the village, also the ancestral place of Bihar CM Nitish Kumar. Most of them are from nearby villages: Belchi, Teeda, Beerumpur and others. They have come in motorbikes and e-rickshaws, the indispensable link transport in rural India nowadays. Some have travelled about 20 km for treatment.Inside the hospital, a duty roster of doctors is posted on a notice board. Even for the night shift, 8pm to 8am, two doctors are marked. “The doctors are polite and the medicine is free,” says Kundan Kumar, who comes from Belchi. “The hospital offers facilities for ‘nasbandi’ (sterilisation) and child delivery too. This is the go-to hospital for many villages,” says guard Sandeep Kumar. Flanking the hospital is a 10+2 school. A hopscotch away, there’s a shooting range and a govt-run industrial training institute adding to the village’s significance.Kalyan Bigha isn’t alone in harvesting the benefits of being a CM’s native place. During his time, Mulayam Singh Yadav’s native place, Safai, in Uttar Pradesh, became a neighbour’s envy and an owner’s pride. Reports suggest that the village is no longer favoured.Used to perks and pampering, some villagers fear that the benefits too may disappear, or diminish, if there’s a change of regime following the 2025 Bihar polls. Anjani Kumar, a Kurmi like Nitish, says, “The thought worries us.” Which is why an overwhelming majority has a single-point agenda: Nitish should continue to be in power.Located in Nalanda district, Kalyan Bigha is part of the Harnaut assembly seat, a JD(U) bastion. Current candidate Harinarayan Singh, 78, is aiming for four in a row. Arun Kumar, a 45-year-old advocate from Congress is his Mahagathbandhan rival. Umakant Paswan, a sharecropper from the Dusadh community, says Nitish can even make a stone win in this seat. Nitish had won from Harnaut in 1985 on a Lok Dal ticket and as a Samata Party candidate in 1995.Kalyan Bigha has transformed since Nitish’s elevation as CM in 2005. Solar lights, reliable electricity supply, tarred roads — locals acknowledge the changes and recall when most civic facilities were missing and roads were muddy. “Sahib (as he is generally referred to) has created conditions to improve our lives. But he doesn’t like to talk about jobs. He just says, study hard and get jobs on your own,” says Niranjan, a Kurmi by caste. The emphasis is on education, as highlighted by a banner displaying the names of 22 first-divisioners in the Matric examinations from Kalyan Bigha and other villages.Kurmis are the single-most caste, followed by Kahars and Manjhis. Most are vocal about their support for teer (arrow), JD(U)’s election symbol.The Naai Tola (barber’s colony) occupies a small corner in Kalyan Bigha where four women from different Jeevika groups have received Rs 10,000 in their accounts as part of the Mukhyamantri Mahila Rojgar Yojana. Jeevika is a state-run livelihood project. Two of them say that they gave the money to their husbands who sat by the roadside offering haircuts and shaves. “Now they have a khokha (makeshift stall),” says Jiyanti Devi.Sitaram knows more about “sahib” than anybody else. For decades, he was caretaker of Nitish’s ancestral residence. In 2015, when this reporter had first visited the village, cow dung cakes were plastered on its outer walls. The roof was made of “khaprail” tiles, evoking memories of another era.An unfussy double-storey building painted in muted yellow and red has replaced the traditional structure. The house is locked. Sitaram, now 81, was asked to move away to his own home, also a concrete structure, roughly 200 yards away. He walks with a stick and speaks with difficulty. “Sahib got me admitted to Patna Medical College and Hospital for my wounded leg. I was there for three months. But the problem keeps recurring,” he says. Sitaram sounds a little sad but admits that Nitish gave him money and “maan-samman” (dignity and respect). Then he walks away.