Seema Parihar, the well-known former bandit queen of the lalla Ram Griho gang who surrendered in 2007, is playing a new role in the forthcoming UP State Assembly elections.
In a film The Ballot directed by Prabhat Misra, Assistant Director National Savings, under the SVEEP activities to generate awareness among voters to step out and vote, she is seen urging people to come out and exercise their franchise.
The movie features the former bandit queen as a village pradhan and has been uploaded on social networking sites. Seema said her phone has started buzzing after people have learnt about it.
The former bandit queen, who has also contested elections in the past, told The Pioneer, that she was very happy to be part of the campaign.
“I had been working with Mishra on environmental issues when he approached me to do this film. I have contested elections in the past and know that people in villages are not aware of how the vote is casted and how the EVM’s have to be operated. Hence I often tell them that they would be helped by the officials and the people at the booths who are present in casting their vote. We need to vote because every vote carries a value and should not be wasted,” she said.
Enthusiastic with the response that she has received from the viewers, she said she will air the message even on the polling day. “I will not only give this message but also arrange for vehicles for the senior citizens to ferry them to their booth on the polling day,” she said.
On being asked why she was not contesting elections this time, the former bandit queen admitted that she had received offers from all the major parties. “I have received offers from all major political parties but because of my past experience I refrained from jumping into the fray. last time when I was contesting elections I was made the star campaigner of the party and a lot of my money was wasted. I have no business or job to generate income and I have to look after two families. I am also fighting court cases and hence I felt it was wiser not to stand as a candidate and see if in future I am capable enough to handle the votes,” she added.
On her impact through the film, she said she would always have an influence because she was a daughter of a farmer first. “People listen to me because I can connect with them being a farmer’s daughter. I know that if I tell people that they should do this everyone right from the young to the old will listen to me,” she said.
Mishra the director of the film said they were planning to shortly showcase the films through mobile vans. “We will be running the vans till February 17 two days before the polling period. There was a lot of cooperation which we received from the several quarters to make the film,” he said.