Saiyed Danish for IndiaTomorrow.net,
Gorakhpur, Feb 12: The district of Gorakhpur in Eastern Uttar Pradesh has nine assembly seats, out of which four had gone to BSP and three seats including Gorakhpur urban and Gorakhpur rural seats were clinched by BJP while SP could secure only one seat in the Assembly Elections 2012. It is also the turf of BJP leader and Member of Parliament Yogi Adityanath’s Hindutva brand of politics. However, today, the equation seems to have changed. Farmers and migrant labourers, severely hit by the demonetization policy of the Modi government, believe that note ban will be one of the most important issues for them in the ongoing Assembly Elections 2017.
IndiaTomorrow.net met farmers at Uruwa village, 45 kms from Gorakhpur city, and asked them about the probability of demonetization affecting the otherwise BJP influenced voting preference in this part of the state.
They say that money has not yet reached their banks here. Every time they are asked to come later. They are not able to feed their kids properly. Even these days, one will find long queues outside banks and ATMs in the morning.
“First they asked us to give all the money to the bank, now we are starving. We are not able to buy seeds for the crop as the market did not have change of the new big notes. There are only 4 ATMs here, we have never seen them open after the note ban move. We had to pay 10% commission to get change of a Rs. 2000 note,” says Ram Nivas Yadav.
Rasoola Begum (70) says that she stood in the bank all day and would not get money. Sometimes she got only Rs. 300 and was told to come again for money.
Anwar Ali, a young farmer told that at least 50 acres lands remained affected as seeds could not be bought on time. Another farmer Baleshwar (62) said that banks seldom had money; he still borrows vegetables from neighbours and feed his family.
In Domingarh village of Campiyarganj assembly seat in Gorakhpur, which was won by ex-UP CM Vir Bahadur Singh’s son, Fateh Bahadur Singh on Nationalist Congress Party ticket, the average voter is reeling under the note ban policy. This time, Fateh Bahadur Singh is contesting on BJP ticket.
“Even selling one’s land in an emergency has become difficult as many do not have accounts and in villages people don’t depend on cheques and so cash payments would not be accepted anymore,” informs Sunil Sahni, ex-village-pradhan of Domingarh.
Harishchandra says that demonetization has affected people so much that it would definitely have an impact on voting. “People are thinking that if BJP in the centre could do something so disastrous, then one can only think of the damage it would do if they win assembly polls here.” However, he is also skeptical about SP-Congress alliance.
“I think that alliance will hit Akhilesh’s fortunes because people are able to understand that if Akhilesh has done work then why he needed Rahul’s face to count his achievements.”
Rampreet, 53, says demonetization affected his daughter’s marriage. “It was twenty days before my daughter’s marriage that I heard about note ban. I had to borrow money from friends and wellwishers as the bank only gave me Rs. 30,000 that too after visiting it 8 times.” He says people are furious about the centre’s note ban decision.
“We could not buy diesel to run pump sets, and pesticides and fertilizers for our farms due to demonetization,” added another farmer.
Nagina Kumar, an octogenarian farmer who was having a pucca home constructed was compelled to find money from different sources after demonetization. “We had a kaccha house so I was constructing a new home for my family but then demonetization struck and I rush to the bank and pleaded the manager that my children lying out in cold but he told me to wait until Makar Sankranti festival. I waited as told but still did not get money from the bank so I pooled in funds through others to get the house completed.”
When asked about which way their votes may go, Kumar said that separate nominations by rebel party leaders is set to harm alliance fortunes. In that case confused voters would rush to BSP.
Seeds could not be sown in these fields in Gorakhpur due to demonetisation.
“My crops were ready but I could not sell them due to lack of currency in the market. In the end, I sold some of it for a paltry price after rest of the crops were eaten by worms,” says Narad (29), who grows ladyfingers, peas and cabbage.
“We had started starving due to note ban as we stopped getting work in urban areas. We had to resort to other jobs such as checking water tanks to sustain ourselves and families with whatever little we earned. It will be a long time before situations would improve here,” say migrant labourers Bhrigu and Lala.
“This government has done work. Ambulance services launched by the Samajwadi Party government in the state have been of great help in our villages. We think Akhilesh deserves another chance,” they said when asked about their voting preference in this election season.
Polling will be held in Gorakhpur and 48 other Assembly seats in Eastern Uttar Pradesh in 6th Phase of Assembly Elections on 4th March.
