Meet 60-year-old Kumar, a former school principal with a govt middle school, who has constructed a helicopter on the roof of his building located at Atrauli village under Obra block.This helicopter is now drawing everyone’s attention in this poll season.
Although the helicopter was constructed way back in 2000, Kumar has gone on openly welcoming the leaders of all hues only now—after his retirement from the govt service. He retired as school principal from Govt Middle School, Sadipur-Dihari in January 2022, and this is the first parliamentary after his retirement.
The story behind the construction of this helicopter is also very interesting. “Once Lalu Prasad Ji (then chief minister of Bihar) had reached our village with a chopper which inspired my father (late Shaligram Yadav) to have our own chopper. Since we could not afford to buy a real chopper, we decided to construct a replica on our roof,” Kumar said talking to TOI.
According to him, some Rs80,000 was spent on its construction but as of now it has become a big hit. “This was the dream of my father,” he added.
“
Neta-log ko hawa me udta dekhkar helicopter banane ka inspiration mila
,” he said,” But when its construction started the local villagers would say ‘
pagala gaya hai kya’
(Have they turned mad)?” What the villagers would mean to say was that Kumar would have purchased spacious land at a prime location with the money spent on constructing the chopper.
“Both Lalu and Nitish Kumar Ji have come to my village in the course of poll campaigning and praised my chopper…
We bole ki yah Bihar ka unique chiz hai
(They told me that this is unique thing of Bihar),” Kumar said.
Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) president Chirag Paswan even offered him to join his party whose poll symbol incidentally is “helicopter”. “
Chirag bole ki mera party join kijiye. Helicopter hi mera chunav chinh hai
(Chirag advised me to join his party saying it is helicopter which is his party poll symbol),” Kumar claimed.
Now that the electioneering has picked up momentum, leaders of all hues visit him to get his “helicopter greeting”. “Leaders normally rush near my house getting attracted by the chopper,” he says with a smile on his face. “I keep watching the leaders sitting on my helicopter,” he said.
Obra falls under Bihar’s Karakat parliamentary constituency which goes to polls in the seventh phase and last phase on June 1. The CPI-ML has fielded former legislator Rajaram Singh as a Grand Alliance candidate whereas the Rashtriya Lok Morcha president Upendra Kushwaha is contesting as an NDA candidate from there.
But the entry of Bjhojpuri singer Pawan Singh as an Independent candidate has added spice to this contest.