Patna: It is indeed very rare in Indian politics for any selected people’s representative to lead a simple and unpretentious life the way Mehboob Alam a three-time MLA from Balrampur constituency in Bihar does.
A local TV reporter shows his modest rural home lacking modern facilities with a village-style kitchen, washroom, and toilet.
In Indian politics, even a village head man when he serves a term in his office builds the tallest home in his village and his personal wealth multiplies fast.
But this is not the case with Mahboob Alam. He is a member of the Central Committee as well as the Bihar State Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation. He has represented the Barsoi and Balrampur constituencies in the Bihar Legislative Assembly Since 1994.
Alam won the 2020 Bihar Legislative Assembly election from Balrampur by a huge margin. He has been arrested numerous times and was incarcerated for 17 months in the late 2000s.
Alam, an agriculturist, studied up to Class XII. He contested the Barsoi seat in the 1985 Bihar Legislative Assembly election as a Communist Party of India (Marxist) candidate, finishing in second place with 14,189 votes.
Alam won the Barsoi seat in the 2000 Bihar Legislative Assembly election, standing as a CPI(ML) Liberation candidate.He got 62,644 votes (51.83%).
He retained the Barsoi seat in the February 2005 Bihar legislative election, winning 45,451 votes. However, ahead of the subsequent October 2005 Bihar Legislative Assembly election, Alam was barred on a minor technical ground from contesting as his name had been deleted, deliberately or otherwise, from the voters’ list.
CPI(ML) Liberation fielded Alam’s younger brother Munaf Alam instead, who won the seat.
Alam filed his nomination papers for the Katihar Lok Sabha seat in the 2014 parliamentary election but was arrested right after the filing.
Mehboob Alam requests the TV reporter not to make his living conditions a political issue. He says earnestly, “I entered into politics to serve the people and not to make money.”.
Responding to a question of the reporter how she feels living such a simple life with three-time MLA of the Bihar Vidhan Sabha, Alam’s wife says, “I am happy to be his wife and lucky to have such a selfless devoted party leader as a life partner.”