For Bitana, 60, of Chaudharypurwa village in Barabanki district, June 30 was one of the happiest days of her life. As the chief general manager of SBI distributed loan waiver certificates to some 486 small farmers out of 3,000 from the district in the first lot, Bitana was one of four beneficiaries from her village. A year ago, she had taken a loan of Rs 12,000, which became Rs 13,748 with interest, to buy seeds and fertilizer, but a poor yield made her unable to repay the money. The waiver, however, lightened her burden. “The Congress has blessed me,” she says, echoing the new-found allegiance that beneficiaries such as her have towards the Congress, even though the MLA in this area is from the ruling BSP and the MP from the BJP.

However, others have been less fortunate. Rammurat, also of Chaudharypurwa, took a loan of Rs 10,000 on his kisan credit card, but did not feature on the first list released by the State Bank of India. “I have only 4 beeghas of land and I did not have a good crop. If my loan is not waived, I may not be able to sow my field,” he said, adding that he is investing his hopes on the bank’s second list, expected to come out next week.