As Bundelkhand in Uttar Pradesh votes in the fourth phase of the Assembly elections on Thursday, things appear to be poised for a three-way fight.
In the 2012 elections, the Bahujan Samaj Party won seven seats, while the Samajwadi Party got five, the Congress four and the BJP three, out of which one was later lost in a byelection.
The fourth phase will see polling in 53 constituencies spread over 12 districts, including the backward Bundelkhand region and the Nehru-Gandhi pocket borough of Rae Bareli.
The Assembly segments in Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s Rae Bareli Lok Sabha constituency will be among the seats where the electoral exercise will take place.
“I had a single ₹1,000 note left, when my child fell ill. I took him to the hospital and they refused to give me medicines for worth even ₹100. What else do I tell you about the impact of notebandi,” says Kamta Prasad Verma (41), a small farmer in Padmai village of Banda’s Naraini block.
Demonetisation blues
The Dalit, a Jatav, is furious with the Centre over demonetisation but is equally annoyed with the SP government for its ‘neglect’ of the poor, especially during and after droughts. “I am waiting to get my ration card for the last two years. Even the grains and items like oil and sugar [provided free by the Akhilesh government] are not supplied as promised. The administration eats up half,” he says.
Verma says he is voting for the BSP. The party candidate and incumbent MLA from the reserved seat (Naraini) is Gaya Charan Dinkar, the leader of the opposition in the Assembly and also a Jatav.
It is late in the evening and Verma has come to a small kiosk near his village for a cup of tea. The shop is run by another Dalit, Manoj Kumar, 19.
Manoj, who belongs to the Kori Dalit subcaste, disagrees with Verma. He supports the BJP and hopes the party fulfils its promise of providing free education to intermediate level and college-going boys and girls. “Modiji works for the youth. Akhilesh also focuses on youth but my biradari is voting for BJP. Mayawati focusses too much on caste. She has taken care of goondaism but what development has she done?” asks Manoj, a first-time voter.
Incidentally, the BJP candidate contesting the seat, Raj Karan Kabir, belongs to his caste.
