“Dinosaurs became extinct because they refused to change with the times. And that’s what has happened to the Communist Party of India (CPI) in (Bihar’s) Jehanabad and Nalanda. They (CPI) were ruling these districts in the 1980s and early 1990s but were dogmatic and refused to accept new social realities,” says comrade Ambika, the district secretary of Jehanabad’s CPI.

Another comrade adds, “If Begusarai is Leningrad, then by that logic, Jehanabad is Moscow”. In a manner of speaking, they are right. Unlike Begusarai, where the CPI only won the seat once in 1967, Jehanabad elected a CPI candidate, Ramashray Prasad Singh, four times in a row (1984, 1989, 1991 and 1996). In neighbouring Nalanda constituency, the CPI won thrice (1980, 1984 and 1991).

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