BHOPAL: In the Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh, you don’t find much water – its unique granite topography does not allow rainwater to seep in and recharge the groundwater table. This season during Covid, the crisis was even more acute.
But in the bypolls — out of the 28 seats, 16 are in Bundelkhand’s Gwalior-Chambal region — no politician is talking about the water crisis. The BJP and Congress are talking about Lord Ram — the former crediting itself for the temple in Ayodhya, the latter promising the ‘real Ram rajya’.
State cabinet minister Govind Singh Rajput has made Ram temple construction his poll plank in Surkhi seat of Sagar district. In the adjoining Chhatarpur district’s Bada Malhara seat, saffron clad ‘katha-vachak’ first-timer Congress candidate Sadhvi Ram Siya Bharti is promising voters to usher in ‘Ram rajya’ if voted to victory.
The Bada Malhara seat (a BJP citadel between 1998 and 2013) was won in 2003 by Uma Bharti, who later became the CM. Following the footsteps of Bharti, Sadhvi Ram Siya Bharti (who too comes from the OBC Lodhi community) has been fielded as a Congress candidate to take on the former Congress MLA Pradyuman Singh Lodhi, who is now seeking re-election as a BJP candidate from the seat he won in 2018 on Congress ticket.
Pradyuman, who was rewarded by CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan as chairman of state civil supplies corporation for switching to BJP, is considered close to Uma Bharti. Ram Siya Bharti quotes the Ramayan in her public meetings to draw crowds. At a recent public meeting, she dubbed her opponent as the mythological demon Kalnemi and the voters as Hanuman. In the Surkhi seat, Govind Singh Rajput is seeking re-election as a BJP candidate against former BJP MLA Parul Sahu, now contesting on a Congress ticket. In 2018 polls, Sahu was defeated by Rajput.