A Man Of No Words: Is Mohammad Shahbuddin’s Legacy Enough To Get Osama Shahab Elected In Siwan?

Nobody asked him to speak, so Osama Shahab, the inheritor of Mohammad Shahabuddin’s legacy, remained on the stage behind Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav at a rally in Hussainganj in Raghunathpur constituency in Bihar’s Siwan district and scanned the crowds as they cheered on the former chief minister of UP. That’s what a party worker said in Hussainganj in Raghunathpur constituency, from where the RJD has fielded former gangster-turned-politician Shahabuddin’s son Osama.

But Shahab, who everyone claims has studied in London, is a man of no words.

“He will learn to speak,” says Prabhudas Yadav, an elderly man in the constituency.

“His father never spoke much and never asked for votes. He didn’t have to.”

Times have changed since Shahabuddin ruled Siwan, and for his son, it is no easy task to match that reputation, although his public relations team, led by delusion and some misplaced romanticism with the Robin Hood legend of Shahabuddin, makes a case for this silence.

“It is about maintaining power. In the old days of the Delhi sultanate, the princes talked less and let mystery be their power game,” a man who oversees his PR team said.

“I know Osama Shahbuddin is winning.”

But Siwan and Raghunathpur are no longer kingdoms in that sense, and Osama is no Shahbuddin. Not yet. He has two pending cases against him regarding the Arms Act, but there has been no conviction yet. Osama stood behind Yadav, who took the stage to talk about many things wrong and right in the country and asked the public to vote for Osama since young people need to now take charge. He didn’t mention dynastic politics but said perhaps the seat comes as inheritance, but intellect doesn’t.

He talked about Uttar Pradesh and how it is time for the regime to end there and here. Yadav has been campaigning for Mahagatbandhan candidates in Bihar and was in Chapra yesterday to support RJD’s Khesari Lal Yadav.

“I see a lot of people and I know Osama is winning,” he said.

But other than that, there wasn’t any mention of Osama’s past or his achievements, or why the public must vote for him, except that he had been given the ticket by RJD. As per the affidavit filed by Osama Shahab, 31, his education details mention only matriculation. His income is upwards of Rs eight crores, and his profession is mentioned as “social worker,” but everyone here talks about the “London degree” and how his demeanour is also because he is an educated man who knows that his words might be misinterpreted by the media.

For his team, the fact that Union Home Minister Amit Shah mentioned Osama’s name and said Jungle Raj will be back if RJD wins since it has decided to field the son of a notoriously revered Bahubali Shahabuddin who had multiple cases of murders and kidnappings against him and was often referred to as the “Sultan of Siwan” and “saheb”, is enough publicity. Shahbuddin, who first won elections from this region as an independent, was then promoted by Lalu Prasad Yadav, who many say needed a strongman like Shahabuddin to take on the upper castes and the communists in Bihar.

Osama stood on the stage without greeting the public, addressing them or listing any of the things he would do. But perhaps it is a calculated move where he refused to give interviews and speak about anything at all.

Yadav took the opportunity to also lay the groundwork for UP elections in the future and said it was his party that would come to Tejashwi’s aid because they have learned from experience how to manage and sustain the ideology they have always espoused.

He also made a sarcastic remark that the controversy regarding Osama’s name should have been solved by changing his name to Sher Singh. The crowd cheered and waved flags because allegiance to Shahabuddin in these parts remains unchallenged, and the RJD’s M-Y combination is effective here, where the Muslim population is approximately 20 per cent.

Why Is Lalu Risking Jungle Raj Barbs For Osama Shahbuddin?

Osama’s entry into active politics began last year when he joined the RJD. His mother, Hena Shahab, also contested the 2024 Lok Sabha seat from Siwan as an independent candidate, polling more votes than RJD’s Awadh Bihari Choudhary but losing the seat to JD(U)’s Vijay Laxmi Kushwaha.

For many people here, it is the development that Shahabuddin brought here that made them his loyalists. The doctors couldn’t charge more than Rs. 50, and there were no dowry demands while he was here. There was also fear, and gang wars were common here and even now, many refuse to talk about the days of Shahabuddin.

Shops are now open until late, and there are multiplexes and malls in Siwan, but the town is torn between old loyalties and a new way of life.

It is said that Shahabuddin ran the affairs here even from jail, and when he was around, fear reigned supreme.

The rise of Shahabuddin can’t be looked at in an abstract way but only as a result of what was going on here in terms of caste and class. He had become formidable under Lalu’s patronage and was a dreaded name even in the police and administrative circles. Now, other parties are out campaigning here, but in those days, it was unheard of.

The 1990s were a time of a lot of upheavals and a lot of disruptions, and Shahabuddin is one such manifestation.

Osama enters the political arena at a time when a lot has changed, and the old kind of politics no longer works.

People still queue up at the palatial house the family owns in Siwan, which was built by Shahabuddin around the time he went to jail for the first time in 2004.

Palm trees and high iron gates guard the house where Osama lives with his mother, wife and children.

Shamsuddin, a small-time mechanic in Pratappur, the ancestral village of Shahabuddin, where his father’s house is now locked and is crumbling, said that Osama must win, and the young man is shy and a little inexperienced, but it is their duty to install him in the seat.

“I worked in the same sugar mill where Shahabuddin’s father worked, and then the mills closed. We are very poor, and Shahabuddin was kind and he helped us. Now, it is our turn to repay him.”

The wife had lost, but that’s because the RJD didn’t give her a ticket, he explained.

“The votes got divided,” Shamsuddin said.

A Heavy Inheritance

Siwan is not an easy place, and Osama was just 10 when his father went to jail.

A Yadav man pointed out a stray and said if Nitish Kumar gives a ticket to a dog, the dog will win, too.

“That’s just to tell you how things are, where even with RJD. We are looking at Patna and Delhi. We want Modi to go, so we will vote for whoever RJD will choose,” he said.

They call him “babu” and make excuses for him, saying he is too young to understand politics, and this is a heavy load of inheritance.

Osama’s cavalcade whizzed past, and somewhere in the sky, Yadav was returning to his home in his helicopter.

Both know what it means to be sons of fathers who are remembered, revered or feared.