Updated: Tue, 21 Oct 2025 05:01 (IST) The process of candidate selection in Hajipur was once unique. Before the selection of the candidates, a public meeting was held, where the public expressed their opinions. Political parties valued public opinion, and candidates answered public questions. This old tradition reminds us of the politics of the times when public opinion reigned supreme. Today, such public meetings are rarely seen. Then the candidate was selected based on support received in the general assembly. Photo Jagran Ravi Shankar Shukla, Hajipur. There was a time when public meetings were held to garner public support. This incident happened 56 years ago in the year 1969. Acharya Ramamurthy came to Hajipur. Leaders of all the parties who wanted to contest elections gathered at the court grounds in Hajipur city. Remove Advertisement Read Only News A total of nine people gathered including advocate Brahmdev Singh, freedom fighter Kishori Prasanna Singh, Basavan Singh. Ramamurthy ji gave everyone ten minutes to present their views. There was a large gathering of voters. Everyone presented their views one by one. Based on this, the candidate was selected. There was a healthy competition in politics then. Today, behind closed doors, political parties decide who to give tickets to. No eligibility conditions. This is why politics today is off track. There is a need to take collective initiative. Moti Lal Kanan, a prominent socialist leader of the district, in a special conversation with Dainik Jagran about a decade ago expressed serious concern about the current political situation and said that today at least one crore rupees is needed to contest the assembly elections. It costs more than that. Today only kings, nobles, moneylenders and millionaires can contest elections. The poor are left behind. The rich take over the power. This inequality is fatal to democracy. It has been said in the words of Karpoori Thakur that there is a terrible and horrifying situation. In this way the concept of democracy will be destroyed. More or less all political parties follow the same path. Now the time has come for everyone to come forward and take collective initiative to save democracy. Socialism was in every direction of Samajwadi Kanan. Motilal Kanan entered the social and political field in 1955 with the Bhoodan movement of Acharya Vinova Bhave. Kanan worked for a month in 1957 in the election of Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia in Farrukhabad parliamentary constituency of UP. In 1965-66 became secretary general of United Socialist Party. In the same year, he was arrested during a political demonstration and sent to prison. From 1962 to 1971, he was the head of Hariharpur Subhai Panchayat of Hajipur. In 1967, he contested elections for the first time from Hajipur assembly constituency on Sansopa ticket and stood second. In 1969, he became MLA from Hajipur for the first time as an independent. In 1969, Bhola Paswan was the Cabinet Minister of Revenue, Land Reforms and Personnel Department in Shastri’s government. In 1971, in the cabinet of Karpoori Thakur, he was the cabinet minister of many departments including Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Community Development and REO. In 1972, he was again elected as MLA on Sansopa ticket. In 1985, he was elected MLA from Karpoori Thakur’s party Damapipa. Until then election campaigns were done by bicycle and action. Kanan then said where was that time and where was today’s situation. At the time, election campaigning was done by bicycle and gig. People used to preach by traveling from town to town on foot. He had a dilapidated jeep at the time. However, he enjoyed preaching with people on foot. Hundreds of people took out a procession on bicycles in support of the candidate. At that point, no one even discussed the expenses at the booth. It used to be a matter of embarrassment for the people and the town. This was the reason that even after they won, there was mutual love and relationship between the general public and the leader. He was a minister and came to the area every Saturday and met the people and listened to their problems. Back to Patna on Monday. In this situation, the common man will stay away from politics. Kanan said that today is scary and terrible. The situation has become so bad that a common man cannot think of contesting elections. In such a situation, the poor man will stay away from politics altogether. Only kings, rich people, moneylenders and millionaires will contest elections. This attitude is quite fatal for democracy. In doing so, democracy itself will disappear. There will be wild law. The strong will dominate the weak. In a democracy, the vote of a common man has the same status as the vote of a king. Our democracy gives the right to equality. In the current situation, we will have to unite and save democracy from weakening. About five years ago, the socialist leader left this world, but his words still give the message of healthy politics with the change in the current situation.
Bihar Politics: When the general assembly was the criterion for candidate selection, a look at the old politics of Hajipur – bihar politics Hajipur public meetings as candidate selection criteria
