Yoga guru Baba Ramdev may have suggested firebrand BJP leader Uma Bharti to contest against Congress president Sonia Gandhi but at her ground zero only the Modi wave could finally see the scales being tilted in her favour.
Former MP Chief Minister Uma Bharti and sitting Congress MP Pradeep Jain Aditya are locked in a fierce battle for the sixth phase lS polls on April 24.
Bharti is facing an uphill task as in the 2009 lok Sabha election, the BJP’s Ravindra Shukla got less than 80,000 votes and was placed fifth whereas Aditya romped home with over 2,50,000 votes. She has to bridge this huge gap.
Bharti is banking on only her community lodh voters and pro-Modi votes to sail through. Perhaps, this is the reason why she is raising the separate Bundelkhand issue and promising to create it within three years of the Modi-led BJP Government at Centre.
With their demands for development ignored, the electorates here are angry both with the Akhilesh Yadav Government in the State and the Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre.
“This is unfortunate that potable water, tourism and even basic infrastructure remain a major issue in Jhansi, which boasts of several forms of natural resources, archeological sites which can be exploited for the benefit of people. Jhansi is popular yet the apathy of the administration has made the region arid zone. While the sitting MP has done only pep talk and cited non-cooperation from a “different” party-ruled State Government, the prospective leader (Uma Bharti) finds solace in being tagged a firebrand. None addresses the basic problems. While Bundelkhand remains a distant dream, we have only managed to get packages,” said Dr R Shukla, a retired professor from the Government college in Shivaji Nagar. “Darkness pervades in the land of thermal power plant,” he summed up.
Treading cautiously at the height of anti-incumbency, Jain is facing difficulty in taking a call on electorates’ demand for a separate state. “If Telangana could happen, then why not BundelkhandIJ He has not even raised the voice of the people of his constituency in the Parliament. He too is no trustworthy. Though I voted for him last time I have made up my mind to vote for Modi,” said Aryan Bundela, a trader in Indrapuri. However, he and others standing around his shop clarified that the vote will be for Modi and Bharti.
“At least, we can smell development and better prospects when Modi speaks. A lot can be done in the region with an able leadership. There are enough prospects for industrial development yet neither the State Government nor the Centre talk of development except for grant of packages in the name of Bundelkhand,” said Aniruddh Sangh, an MBA from Pune who is now looking for a summer internship.
Sangh says he and his couple of friends are now planning to move to a metropolitan city or a bigger city for better opportunities. He deplores the state of governance which cannot support their careers at the starting point itself, “forget a job of even `3000”.
In the last lok Sabha polls, then BJP candidate Ravindra Shukla secured less than 80,000 votes whereas winning Congress candidate got over 2,50,000 votes. Shukla was far behind BSP’s Ramesh Kumar Sharma with over 2 lakh votes. SP and RSMD candidates got about 1 lakh votes from their dedicated voters.
While there is a direct contest between Jain and Bharti, the other contestants are BSP’s Anuradha Sharma, SP’s Chandrapal Yadav and AAP Archana Gupta. AAP’s posters with Arvind Kejriwal and symbol ‘Jhadu’ has a good presence but whether this is going to translate into votes remains to be seen.