Red Revival

On his way to the hallowed chamber of Parliament, OBC leader Sudama Prasad defeated a BJP stalwart in Arrah and ensured CPI-ML’s entry into Parliament after more than three decades

- Umesh Kumar Ray

FROM starting out in a small, family-run sweet shop, to being a grassroots politician for nearly four decades, to now becoming the first Communist Party of India (Marxist Leninist) Liberation MP in 35 years, OBC leader Sudama Prasad’s journey has been an incredible one.

On his way to the hallowed chamber of Parliament, Prasad, 56, defeated RK Singh, a two-time MP, former bureaucrat and a BJP stalwart who has been a minister at the Centre, by almost 60,000 votes in Arrah, Bihar.

Prasad’s win is significant on two counts—despite coming from a deprived background, he managed to defeat an influential leader like Singh, and his win has ensured the party’s entry into Parliament after more than three decades. Prasad will be one of two CPI (ML) Liberation MPs in the 18th Lok Sabha. Raja Ram Singh, 66, won the Karakat seat in South Bihar, defeating the NDA’s Upendra Kushwaha, and Bhojpuri actor Pawan Singh, who contested as an Independent.

Arrah happens to be the same Lok Sabha seat from where the party won the General Elections nearly three decades ago. In 1989, Rameshwar Prasad, the Indian People’s Front (IPF) leader, won from then Ara. The IPF was a CPI (ML) Liberation organisation which was set up to contest elections because at that time the party was underground. Later, the IPF was dissolved.

After 1989, the party could never win a Lok Sabha seat in Bihar. “We lost our voters to socialist leader Lalu Prasad Yadav after he emerged as a big leader. We are now hoping to regain our support base,” says CPI (ML) Liberation leader Kunal.

A two-time MLA, Prasad fought to protect Bihar’s public libraries, led the paddy procurement movement, and agitated for projects to develop Bhojpur.