REPORTER’S DIARY: THE GREAT INDIAN ROADSHOW

N iv edit a Moo kerjiand Karan Choudhury crisscrossed UP to report on the 2017 Assembly elections. Some off beat highlights:

Jhansi, once a princely state that came under British rule, has been etched in memory for Rani Lakshmibai or Jhansi Ki Rani. But experiencing Jhansi, the gateway to Bundelkhand, in the election season was something else.

Lalitpur, a nondescript town with agriculture as its primary occupation, was to be tracked along with Jhansi, for the fourth phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls. Drought-prone, rocky, poor and backward are among the most common descriptions for the Bundelkhand region that covers parts of two states, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. In recent times, the region was in the news for hundreds of farmer suicides as drought killed their crops and debts piled up.

Soon it was time to travel to a different India. While there were more than 70 trains from Delhi to Jhansi, there was no flight. The closest airport was Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh, more than 100 km away Jhansi, and flights were via Mumbai or Varanasi. So, it was going to be a train journey, non-stop to Jhansi, after crossing Agra, Mathura and then the Chambal valley, which still brings alive the tales of the long-gone dacoits.

And then, local transport

Even as Bundelkhand was dressing up for the elections in the fourth phase, activity was picking up pace in the ancient city of Ayodhya, the setting for the epic Ramayana. In a modern context, it is ground zero for any debate on Ramjanmabhoomi. Adjacent to Faizabad, Ayodhya was another destination in the election itinerary. A three-hour journey by a UP Roadways bus was all it took to travel from Lucknow to Faizabad, home for two days to journalists on the campaign trail. A Vikram auto reached us to the hub of electioneering, Ayodhya, in 20 minutes flat.

Clubbed with Ayodhya was Amethi, better-known for the Gandhi family’s hold on it as a Lok Sabha constituency. It was again a two-hour drive by a UP Roadways bus to Sultanpur, before arriving at Amethi in a van. The night stay had to be in Sultanpur as (Top left) Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi interacts with farmers, and BJP President Amit Shah (top right) in an election rally in Amethi; (Above) A female voter walks past Sadhus waiting for their turn to vote at a polling station in Ayodhya; UP Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav (right) during an election rally in Amethi Amethi hardly had any decent hotels. The stories that followed kept one running despite the back-breaking travel on pot-holed roads.

Three wheels or four?

As the Duronto, late by more than 90 minutes, entered Jhansi, enquiries for a taxi prompted porters to ask a strange question, Teen pahiyo ka taxi ya chaar pahiyo ka?’ (Do you want a three-wheeler taxi or a fourwheel taxi?) Well, one had to settle for a three-wheeler to reach the hotel. The real taxis were all taken up by the many weddings dotting the city, a series of election rallies and a mega fair at tourist city Khajuraho, some 180 km from Jhansi. Besides taxi, good hotels, too, were in short supply, for similar reasons. Splitting the stay between hotels in Jhansi and Orchha, a picturesque town nearby in Madhya Pradesh, was the only option. While Jhansi was politically charged with newspapers and TV channels filled with election information, hotels and streets buzzing with campaigns and predictions of winners and losers, rowdy youngsters zipping on motorcycles, loudspeakers blaring out poll jingles and their parodies, Orchha’s FM stations had airtime devoted to polls all day. Not only that, a helipad in Orchha saw frenzied VIP activity. Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan was among those who flew to Orchha and then travelled by road to Jhansi to campaign.

Where money sings

While demonetisation was a clear election theme, cashless reporters who travelled from Delhi, one of the cities still facing dry ATMs, were in for a surprise. It was raining cash in Uttar Pradesh. In Faizabad, a guard at an ATM said cash vans came twice a day to ensure there was money available 24X7. “No one here has to wait to take money out.’’

Apart from the free flow of cash, Uttar Pradesh’s music industry was on a high too, managing the gigs of political parties. If Sam ajwa di Congress had Bollywood versions of

UP ko yeh saath pasand hai’, BJP belted out Pappu ko Akhilesh pasand hai, behenji ko cash pasand hai’. “We earn a lot during elections. We get around ~25,000 for a small show to ~1 lakh at major rallies,’’ said Ram Asre, a singer and events manager.

Caste away?

As for the political wave, Jhansi’s Sarafa Bazar showed anti-BJP sentiments due to the adverse impact of demonetisation on business. Even as traders are considered Bharatiya Janata Party loyalists, shop-owners here were angry that no leader from the party had bothered to ask them how their business had been hit by the note ban. But at the district magistrate’s office in Lalitpur, officials shrugged off any impact of demonetisation. “Everything is normal.’’ NGOs which were a link between villagers, farmers and the administration, argued that the note ban would get a play in this election, but caste issues would dominate.

In the interiors of Lalitpur, at Khiriya Chhatara village, 20-year-old Rani and her neighbours, stressed with farmers’ suicides and the government apathy towards settling loans, were determined to vote for change.

Meanwhile, in Faizabad, it was a tussle between the BJP and the Bahujan Samaj Party. At a prominent hotel, a 15-year-old waiter, yet to attain the age of voting, supported the BSP, while the owner was an all-out BJP man. He even organised local rallies.

Jobs and wifi

Even as local flavours stood out on the campaign trail, such as 110 laddoo shops at the Ramjanmabhoomi site in Ayodhya, or Jhansi locals assessing the might of a leader by the size of the ground he or she booked for rallies, there were compelling unifying themes through the polls. The rush of helicopters and helipads next to rally sites were among these. As Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav flew over a rally before landing, the mesmerised crowd cheered loudly, waving at them. Also, if Akhilesh’s TRP soared, at least in rallies, his wife Dimple has been a crowd-pull er like few others .“It does not matter how far the rally is, I make it a point to go and listen to Dimple Bhabhi,’’ said a young party worker,

All this while the signature campaigns of the Narendra Modi government are yet to hit home in most of Uttar Pradesh. Digital India, Swachh Bharat and Make in India are still a pipedream as the state struggles for power, road infrastructure and a good communication network. Even so, the young are hooked to WhatsApp whenever they can access wi-fi. They would want jobs and Internet connectivity more than anything else from whoever wins these elections.