Courting the ‘ suhaag nagari’
WHAT’S AT STAKE BSP, Congress, AAP field first-timers; All eyes on contest between Mulayam Singh’s nephew Akshay Yadav and Bharatiya Janata Party’s prof SP Singh Baghel
FIROZABAD: ‘Suhag nagari’, where the sheen of bangles belies the plight of unorganised glass industry labourers and lack of infrastructure, has been courted by the high and mighty of politics over the years.
This time, all eyes are on Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh’s nephew Akshay Yadav, with his father, SP national general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav, campaigning for the young debutant since the past one year.
Rival Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded Bahujan Samaj Party defector prof SP Singh Baghel and hopes to cash in on the buzz around Modi. The party is seeking to revive its success from two decades ago, when its candidate Prabhu Dayal Katheria won the reserved seat thrice—in 1991, 1996 and 1998—before being stopped by the SP in 1999, by veteran Ramji Lal Suman.
With its sitting MP Raj Babbar moving to Ghaziabad constituency, the Congress has relied on another debutantn Atul Chaturvedi; while the Aam Admi Party has fielded first-timer Rakesh Yadav. The BSP, which had declared former Agra Cantt MLA Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhutto as its candidate a long time back, has been experiencing some turbulence. After changing the candidate to Chaudhary Basheer, it finally settled on Vishwadeep Singh, who is also making his electoral debut.
This is not the first interesting contest the constituency has seen. In 2009, now chief minister Akhilesh Yadav won the constituency and gave up the seat to keep Kannauj. His wife Dimple Yadav fought and lost the by–election to Congress’ Raj Babbar.
Firozabad, which was a separate constituency since 1957, only became a separate district from Agra on February 2, 1989.
Its famous glass industry is in a precarious state, facing several problems. As Firozabad lies within the Taj Trapezium Zone, it faces a restriction on industrial activity that may pose a threat of pollution to the Taj Mahal. Following a Supreme Court order, all major glass factories have adopted the use of gas as fuel. Therefore, availability of gas under the Administered Price Mechanism and its cost for the industry remain big issues.
“The price of gas was to be raised from April 1, but was postponed till May 30 due to the election. The glass industry here is not that strong, so we need gas at controlled prices. Firozabad these days is facing a tough challenge from Chinese products and gas price hike will affect us adversely,” says Abhishek Mittal, 35, owner of a glass-manufacturing unit.
In addition, where there are big export houses of glassware on one hand, there are also around 2 lakh labourers in unorganised sector working for meagre daily wages living in miserable conditions.
“Firozabad has been never known for the best of infrastructure. Besies, much remains to be done for the law and order situation,” says a local resident, who maintains that petty disputes often escalate into major incidents.
Issues of falling water level, unemploy- ment and health services are being raised by candidates, but he doubts if development would be a major issue this election.
Agrees another resident, Rajveer Singh, “For health services, we have to rely on Agra. There are no proper facilities for sports activities. The roads have been repairs and power supply is also better since the past couple of months, but this might just be because of the approaching election.”