While Banarasi laddoos and pedas from Mathura heralded Diwali for the winners, what was it like to be a first-timer and stare at a loss? Did it mean going back to where you came from or looking to leap into a winning camp?
On Tuesday the 10th of November, television channels pointed out that it was a hat-trick of losses for the family from Kadam Kuan in Patna, Bihar, ever since pater familias Shatrughan Sinha jumped ship in 2019.
“I’m fine,” son Luv assured me, after losing to Nitin Nabi of the BJP in Bankipore. “It’s not like I came in delusional that I was going to flip the game.
“You have to accept the verdict of the people. Or the machine, so to speak,” he laughed, toeing the line of his party.
There was cause for cheer too.
“For a first-time candidate to get 44,000 votes, when your party is making an effort after many years, is not a bad result at all,” he remarked, upbeat that he had achieved it in less than 18 days of campaigning. “My opponent was a sitting candidate for 15 years and I still managed to get 44,000. After being here for years, he got only 39,000 votes more.
“Besides, I stood up to the BJP candidate from a difficult seat. They don’t realise what my capacity and my strength is.”
However sanguine his reflections were, the post-mortem by political analysts came to a conclusion that’s quite contrary.
By Tuesday evening, Luv and his family were written off the political arena as inconsequential with the Congress’s choices also coming under fire.
“Post-mortems on the losing side are easy to do,” Luv volleyed back. “The psephologists should be fired considering that they had predicted a sweeping victory for the Mahagathbandhan — which is what should have happened if it had been a fair fight,” he added, the allegation wrapped up in his remark.
“Psephologists and analysts sit there and give their so-called expert opinions. I never asked for the seat. I respectfully say, ask the leadership of the party because they must’ve had some faith in me when they told me to fight from such a difficult seat.”
So, is it finis to the family’s electoral prospects?
“If that was the case, the BJP’s prospects should’ve ended in 1996, when all their candidates were losing,” Luv fought back. “Losing an election is not the end, it’s just the beginning. This was my first step and I’m not going anywhere.”
After the Congress lost 51 seats out of the 70 it contested, will he stick with the party?
“To switch parties because you have lost is not the right approach, at least not for me,” he replied. “My father was with the BJP when they had no position at all, he did not switch either. So I don’t think you abandon or leave a party because you didn’t get the verdict you wanted or expected.”
The main takeaway from the conversation was that no loss would make him quit and his taste for politics did not mean that he was wrapping up what was left of his acting career.
“I’m not giving up,” he dug his heels in. “I didn’t take this decision to contest elections because I felt my acting career was over.
“Whether the film industry or politics, both sectors should realise that I don’t quit. If that was the case, because of less work in films, I should’ve quit a long time ago. But whether it’s my strength or a problem, I don’t give up.”
However rough the going may be in both fields.
One major factor that gave the new entrant VIP status straightaway was the presence of his father, Shatrughan Sinha, by his side.
Luv acknowledged, “Papa’s presence definitely helped me tremendously. You can’t have an election in Bihar without his presence, win or lose doesn’t matter. His impact will always be there.”
Here’s what may seem an improbable prediction right now: having witnessed first-hand the unlikely rise of an unknown Bihari with scars on his face, if Luv is blessed with his father’s grit, and the skin to weather the cruellest of setbacks, you haven’t heard the last of this Sinha either.
