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In democracy, the bond between people and their representatives is delicate. It is built on promises, trust, and delivery. When that bond breaks, voters are left with frustration while leaders often show arrogance instead of accountability. A striking example of this rupture unfolded recently in Kusheshwar Asthan, Darbhanga, where Bihar minister Ashok Choudhary lost his patience with the very people he was meant to serve. His words, “I don’t need your vote,” spoken before a restless crowd, now stand as a reminder of how far governance in Bihar has drifted from ground realities.
The protest in Kusheshwar Asthan
On August 22, 2025, a government program was organized at High School Sattighat in Kusheshwar Asthan. People gathered in large numbers, but this was not a cheerful audience waiting for speeches. They came carrying placards that read “No road, no vote” and “Shambhavi go back.” Their demand was direct and urgent: repair the broken road from Sattighat to Rajghat and reconstruct the Sahorbaghat bridge, which had collapsed in 2023. For years, this road has remained a nightmare, waterlogged during monsoons and nearly impossible to walk without removing footwear. This route is not a luxury but a lifeline that connects over two lakh residents to hospitals, markets, and schools.
Instead of empathy, the crowd was met with anger. Minister Ashok Choudhary snapped from the stage, saying he did not need their votes. He went further, asking officials to photograph protestors and take action against them for obstructing government work. His daughter, MP Shambhavi Choudhary, was present beside him, making the moment even more symbolic.
A question of dignity
When people raise their voices about basic needs like roads, they are exercising their democratic right. Their protest is not an insult to governance but a reminder of what governance stands for. By threatening action and dismissing their demand, the minister did not just reject a question about infrastructure. He rejected the dignity of the people themselves. A leader who tells voters “I don’t need your vote” undermines the very foundation of representative democracy.
In Kusheshwar Asthan, development is not measured in speeches or reports but in whether a villager can reach the market, the hospital, or the school without wading through mud. Here, a broken bridge is not a minor delay in a government file; it is a farmer forced to watch his harvest rot unsold, a patient trapped on the wrong side of the river, and a child compelled to abandon education because the road turns into a swamp each monsoon. What officials call an “incomplete project,” the people experience as a daily assault on their dignity and survival.
The shadow of dynastic politics
The confrontation in Kusheshwar Asthan carried a heavier weight because Ashok Choudhary’s daughter, Shambhavi Choudhary, is now the Member of Parliament from Samastipur, under whose constituency Sattighat falls. For the villagers, her presence alongside her father was not reassuring but insulting. They saw two generations of power sharing the stage while their own generations had walked the same broken road without change. The anger in their slogans was not just against an MP or a minister but against a political culture that treats seats as family inheritance and people as secondary. In rejecting Shambhavi, the villagers were rejecting the idea that dynastic privilege should triumph over delivery and accountability.
A crack in Nitish Kumar’s model
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has long claimed credit for building roads and improving governance in Bihar. The idea of Sushasan rested on visible improvements in connectivity and administration. Yet, when a senior minister of his cabinet lashes out at voters demanding roads, it strikes at the heart of this image. Opposition parties now have a ready argument: that the government has grown arrogant, that it listens less and controls more. The slogan “No road, no vote” carries more weight than any campaign speech because it is rooted in lived experience.
What voters must remember
Anger fades from headlines, but memory remains in villages. People must remember that democracy gives them the right to ask questions and demand answers. Roads, bridges, and hospitals are not favors from the government. They are entitlements that citizens have already paid for through taxes and votes. When leaders tell you that they do not need your vote, they are in fact saying that they are confident enough to win without your support. That confidence grows only when people forget to hold them accountable.
Final Take
Accountability must be made real. The Road Construction Department should publish clear timelines for the reconstruction of the Sahorbaghat bridge and the Sattighat–Rajghat road, with fortnightly progress reports placed on public boards. Quality audits should be conducted independently, and villagers should be able to track progress without waiting for another election rally. Most importantly, leaders must learn to listen. A simple apology from Ashok Choudhary would have gone farther in restoring trust than any order to the police.
The incident at Kusheshwar Asthan is not just about a minister’s outburst. It is about a system that often forgets that power flows upward from the people. Roads and bridges are not ornaments but arteries of life. The people of Bihar have a responsibility to remember this moment when they next stand in line at the polling booth. Democracy survives only when citizens remind leaders that votes are never to be taken for granted.
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