BANDA: As in life, dreaded dacoits Shiv Kumal Patel alias Dadua and Ambika Prasad Tokia continue to haunt the pollscape in Banda constituency of Uttar Pradesh even after their death nearly two years ago.
The three-decade-long reign of terror in the ravines of Bundelkhand came to an end after they were gunned down by the Special Task Force in 2007.
Known for gun-totting dacoits, Banda which is part of the poverty stricken Bundelkhand region goes to polls on April 23 during the second phase of Lok Sabha elections.
Belonging to the Kurmi community, Dadua’s gang leader Raju Kol and Ambika Prasad’s son Deepak Patel have openly called for support to the Samajwadi Party candidate and former BSP man R K Patel.
These dacoits exert considerable influence on the community through their family members in the districts.
Like Savita Patel who is Deepak Patel’s aunt. She is the head of the block panchayat in Karvi. Another is Veer Singh, Dadua’s son, who is the head of Chitrakoot zila panchayat. A key strategist is Bal Kumar, Dadua’s younger brother, who is the SP candidate from Mirzapur. All these people have met a couple of times already to garner support to R K Patel.
Playing hide and seek with the Special Task Force, both Deepak and Raju have asked their family members and community people to conduct meetings to mobilise support for Samajwadi Party.
Despite being on the run, the dacoits’ campaign call for Samajwadi Party is no less terrifying. What they say is ‘’Those who don’t vote for Radhey should be prepared to face the bullet and have their bodies dumped in the ravines.’’ The Patel community that accounts for more than 15 percent of the 6 lakh voters may be a deciding factor in the polls.
This is a cause for worry for the other candidates in the fray. The ruling Bahujan Samaj Party has fielded a Brahmin, Bhairo Prashad Mishra, as per its social engineering formula while Amita Bajapi of a well known zamindar family of late Mannu Lal Awasthi is the candidate of the BJP.
The Congress candidate is Bhagwandin Garg.
Not only the SP, other parties too have wooed the dacoits in the past for winning Assembly and Parliament elections.
Realising that every seat counts to translate her dream of becoming Prime Minister into a reality, Chief Minister Mayawati has sent the Special Task Force after the dacoits even as she has asked them to surrender if they wanted to return to normal life.
So, the stakes are quite high for three Cabinet ministers and close confidants of Mayawati -Nayeemuddin Siddiqui, Babu Singh Kushwaha and Datu Prasad to steer the BSP candidate to victory as they hail from Chitrakoot.
Despite the efforts by these ministers to woo the voters, the state government’s battered image on account of corruption is likely to make Bhairo Prashad Mishra’s sailing a difficult task. Amit Tripathi, a long time political activist, says that Dalits are unhappy as jobs of ‘safai nayak’ have gone to Brahmins, and the Brahmins and other forward castes who are facing cases under SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act are peeved with Mayawati.
Amita Bajpai, whose family has established several educational institutions in the region, is looking to translate this goodwill into votes for her.
“Problems in Banda are more than one can imagine. We can do more with political backing,” young Amita told Express, justifying her jump into the poll fray.
Another contender is former Uttar Pradesh Home Secretary Jagan Nath Singh who is standing as an independent.
The DIG of Chitrakoot range, K K Tripathi, told Express that his STF was determined to end the dacoit menace in the region. “They are on the run”, Tripathi asserted.