Potholes rattle UP CM’s ‘kaam bolta hai’ campaign claim
EMPTY PROMISE A road accident in Gahmar village, Zamania constituency, has highlighted the lack of infrastructure in eastern UP
GHAZIPUR: A lorry laden with hay overturned on one of the countless potholes dotting the main thoroughfare of an eastern Uttar Pradesh village, crushing to death a Dalit boy.
The accident on February 18 threatens to tip over a politician’s fortunes this poll season.
Gahmar, the country’s biggest village with about 4,400 families in Ghazipur district, erupted after the incident that left two people injured as well.
Driven by anger over their pockmarked and trench-like lifeline — the Tarighat-Bara highway — many villagers launched a violent protest. They torched and vandalised private and public property, including a police jeep, attracting an iron-fisted crackdown by the authorities.
The potholes, police action and public anger threaten to spoil the re-election bid of the Samajwadi Party’s Om Prakash Singh, a former tourism minister in chief minister Akhilesh Yadav’s council, at Zamania constituency in Ghazipur district.
Also, the accident exposed faultlines in the chief minister’s social engineering formula and holes in his “kaam bolta hai”, or work speaks for itself, narrative.
Anger and frustration over poor infrastructure were simmering at Gahmar, long before the truck keeled over. The accident lit the matchlock.
The 35km stretch from the Ghazipur district headquarters to Gahmar takes about two-anda-half hours of bone-rattling travel on an apology of a road.
Senior district officials reached the village several long hours after the incident. What came next was a midnight swoop on suspects in the village.
Police arrested BJP candidate Sunita Singh’s brother-in-law Raghuvir Singh and 14 more people associated with the party for the arson and vandalism, said Ajay Singh Gahmar, a villager.
Politics has taken over since. Villagers alleged the police action to senior officers belonging to the Yadav community.
The former minister couldn’t be contacted for his response, while officers at Gahmar police station dismissed the charges.
The BJP was quick to seize the opportunity to rally people against the ruling SP.
The last time the BJP won Zamania constituency was in 1991. The seat has been an SP-BSP match since then .
Of about 400,000 voters in Zamania, a third comprises Muslims and Dalits. There are an estimated 50,000 Yadavs. That makes Muslim votes crucial to both the SP and BSP.
“Om Prakash had a good chance but people are turning against him. (BSP candidate) Atul Rai is also a strong contender. We haven’t decided anything yet,” a Muslim villager from Bara said. The SP candidate could also face erosion in his party’s support among Yadavs.
“What has he done? You have seen the roads. You tell us,” said Lalji Yadav of Bhoksi village.
The BJP is banking on the support of non-Yadav other backward classes and upper castes.
Farmer Rambachan Rajbhar has no love lost for any party, but has faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “We are thinking of giving him a chance,” he said.
ANGER AND FRUSTRATION OVER POOR INFRASTRUCTURE WERESIMMERINGAT GAHMAR, LONG
BEFORE THE TRUCK KEELED OVER