Son, daughter of two JD(U) mantris locked in Samastipur contest

PATNA: At a poll rally for NDA candidates in Darbhanga recently, PM Modi was seen blessing a woman candidate in fray from Samastipur. Seated next to the PM, she kept her palms folded and head bowed as a mark of respect to him. "Give your votes to LJP (Ram Vilas) candidate Shambhavi Chaudhary. She is the youngest nominee in the entire country. Our daughter should win," the PM had said. Shambhavi (25) is the daughter of minister Ashok Chaudhary in the Nitish-led Bihar govt. She is pitted against Congress's Sunny Hazari (29), son of another mantri, Maheshwar Hazari. Formed in 2008 after delimitation, the Samastipur seat will go the polls on May 13. The seat is reserved for SCs. Shambhavi, who speaks fluently in English and Hindi, did her graduation in sociology from Lady Sri Ram College and PG from Delhi School of Economics. She also completed her PhD from Amity University. Shambhavi (a Dalit) married Shayan Kunal (an upper caste Bhumihar) last year.Sunny, on the other hand, is an engineer from NIT, Patna. Both Shambhavi and Sunny have gone on record saying they had to be in politics to carry forward their family legacy and do something for the development of the constituency.It wouldn't have been surprising to see both Sunny and Shambhavi vying for a JD(U) ticket from Samastipur, given that their fathers are close to Nitish. But by Nov last year, Ashok Chaudhary had forged ahead by organising Bhim Sansad at Patna - or a state-level meeting of Dalits - mobilised from across the state under the banner of JD(U). After this, Shambhavi joined LJP(RV), a party that works for uplift of Dalits, while Sunny joined Congress and became its Khanpur block chief. As for the family legacy, Shambhavi's grandfather, Mahavir Chaudhary, had a long career in state politics as an MLA from the late 1960s. On the other hand, Sunny's grandfather, Ram Sewak Hazari, was a six-time MLA from Samastipur district. Now, Ashok is camping at Samastipur to campaign for Shambhavi, while Maheshwar is in Patna to reach out to people of Samastipur - a seat he represented in 2009. So Samastipur, in a way, has also become a battleground for the fathers of the two candidates.