Despite expressway,BSP in slow lane

More than a year later,there is no sign of the project taking off. Since it is election time,the fears and apprehensions of landowners have provided a ready issue to Mayawati’s rivals. “It will take away the livelihood of farmers without actually giving them anything,” alleges BJP candidate Manoj Kumar Sinha.

BSP’s Sangram Singh Yadav tries to convince farmers that the expressway will actually change the landscape of eastern UP,by bringing in investments and prosperity,but finds few takers. “Foundation stones do not provide us work,these fields do. Didi (Mayawati) should understand this. She has deployed policemen to guard her stone. But they never come when we need them,” says Dalit farmer Sita Ram,whose house is closest to the foundation.

“Expressway or not,we need electricity,we need roads to go to nearby towns and villages. This place gets flooded in the rainy season,” says another farmer Radha Mohan,adding,“We are not against development as officers seem to believe. But we are not big businessmen who would go to Delhi each day to sell vegetables or grains.”

Land owners in villages like Kohri Kakar and Mubarakpur say they could understand if the government needed land only for the highway. “They also want to take the land along the highway and give it to a private firm,” says Udai Shankar Rai. There’s a crisis of credibility.

Ballia has suffered neglect for long,although it elected former PM Chandra Shekhar to the Lok Sabha consistently since 1977,with the only exception of 1984. The town is on the bank of the Ganga,but there is a shortage of drinking water. Roads are bad,electricity supply is only for eight to 10 hours a day,and health facilities are abject.

And it is these daily problems that the people are more concerned about. In the two years that the BSP government has been there,it seems to have done little.

After Chandra Shekhar died in December 2007,his son Neeraj Shekhar won the seat in the by-election,mainly because of the sympathy factor. He is the SP candidate. Locals say the fight would not be easy for him this time. “Chandra Shekharji ki baat kuch aur thi (he was different),” says R N Yadav,who lives some distance from Chandra Shekhar’s palatial house,called “Baba ki Jhonpari”.

Says the BJP candidate,“People took pride in the fact that a national leader like Chandra Shekhar hailed from Ballia and they voted for him. That does not apply to Neeraj. What has he done in the past year and a half?”

Neeraj’s representative Santosh Kumar says,“Bhaiya has done whatever he could in the short time. He got electric poles installed,but government is not supplying electricity.”

Ballia,Uttar Pradesh

Candidates

Neeraj Shekhar,SP

Sangram Singh Yadav,BSP

Manoj Sinha,BJP

BACK STORY

2007(By-elections) Neeraj Shekhar (SP)

2004 Chandra Shekhar

1999 Chandra Shekhar

1998 Chandra Shekhar

1996 Chandra Shekhar

1991 Chandra Shekhar