Lok Sabha elections 2019: Harvard alumnus throws hat in Valmikinagar ring

BETTIAH: Perceived frontrunner and former MP Baidyanath Prasad Mahto of the JD(U) arrived first to file nomination papers for the Valmikinagar seat on Wednesday. Soon, Deepak Yadav, the owner of Bagaha Sugar Mill, followed him with the BSP symbol. An aide immediately pulled out a ladder and Yadav climbed it to garland Babasaheb Ambedkar’s statue at the Collectorate gate.
The fresh marigolds atop the decaying ones around the idol’s neck was a freeze-frame that signalled a message to Mayawati’s core base of Dalits. “Behenji is grooming a new generation of leaders,” BSP Bihar in charge Lalji Medhankar told this newspaper, referring as much to the entrepreneur from Haryana throwing his hat in the electoral ring as also for Akash Anand, the nephew who filled in for the BSP Supremo at rallies in UP following the Election Commission’s 48-hour gag order.

Yadav (42), a Regional Engineering College (Kurukshetra) grad, also holds a master’s in finance from Lancaster, UK. “I did MBA from the Harvard Business School,” Yadav told this reporter, calling himself as the ‘Turnaround Expert’. “I’ve so far turned around nine companies,” he said. Citing his domain expertise across sectors from renewable energy generation, sugar, ethanol, fintech, software, IT, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, real estate, hospitality, banking, finance and commodity trading, he quipped, “Fortune has done a story on me.”

But what drew this entrepreneur from Haryana to make political investment in Bihar? “I am now as much a Bihari though speaking Bhojpuri still eludes me,” he said, explaining, “Look, how I’ve brought smiles to farmers after acquiring this sick sugar plant. I’m generating 18MW of power, soon to be augmented to 80MW. Farmers’ income levels have increased. They consider me family......I’m here to contest as their representative.”

Reminded of PM Modi’s ‘hard work’ jibe to Harvard educated netas, Yadav retorts, “This is not the way... putting rhymes over reason. Isn’t studying hard work? Improving skills is a lot of hard work.”

He added, “CM Nitish ji too has recognized and rewarded my hard work here.”

Opening good schools for farmers’ children in these backwaters of Bihar is one of the dreams for the suave entrepreneur, whose three children attend UK’s elite institutions. Sons Aasmaan (15) and Zidaan (9) are at Eton College and Ludgrove (prep school for Eton) where princes Harry and William went. His daughter Charisma (6) attends Kensingtom Prep, London’s top school for girls.

Yadav’s foray into the Valmikinagar battle is being seen as another major threat to NDA nominee Baidyanath. Congress’ Shashwat Kedar, set to file his papers on Thursday, also has set the poll abuzz with hopes of the grand old party’s revival by his ‘yuva josh’. The seemingly three-corner fight here also may become further hazy if rebels Purnamasi Ram (Cong) and Satish Chandra Dubey (BJP) join the contest.

Travelling across three of the six assembly segments of Valmikinagar, this reporter was told by people that the NDA bigwigs are likely to bypass ‘safe seat Paschim Champaran (Bettiah)’ for a blitzkrieg in Valmikinagar. UP CM Yogi Adityanath and PM Modi are just two of the prominent names being mentioned as the NDA thrust to propel the passage of CM Nitish Kumar’s close aide Mahto to parliament. Surely, the Harvard Biz school alumnus has added fizz to that buzz on the ground.