Power brings power in UP’s badlands

Darpan Singh
Ghazipur, April 25
IN THE twin cities of Ghazipur and Mau, only 'power' can ensure power. On the face of it, Ghazipur — which goes to polls on May 3 — looks like any other eastern Uttar Pradesh district with its poor roads, widespread underdevelopment and frequent gang wars. But it is the uninterrupted supply of electricity that sets it apart. Local people tell you the district has been receiving electricity 22 hours a day ever since don-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari’s elder brother Afjal Ansari won the Lok Sabha seat in 2004. Uday Narain Singh, a traditional Congress supporter, is all praise for Mukhtar. He says that even when the Ansari brothers were sent to jail after the killing of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai, the power supply did not falter.Mukhtar, Bhai Jaan to the locals, misses no opportunity to take credit for the power supply. Every month, a man on a rickshaw goes to every town telling the people they owe the privilege to Bhai Jaan's sincerity. Electricity department officials here believe only Saiffai, the native place of Mulayam Singh Yadav, gets as much power.Ramesh Jaiswal, a photo-stat shop owner, says he saves a “lot of money as generator sets have almost become irrelevant. The credit goes to the Ansari brothers”. Incidentally, Jaiswal is a staunch BJP supporter.Mukhtar began his political career by winning the Mau Sadar assembly seat on a BSP ticket from jail. He is seeking a hattrick this time as an Independent. Rival candidates in Ghazipur seem dispirited. The Congress’s Singh confessed the Ansari brothers were powerful but he was still hopeful as “the condition of roads, water supply and healthcare is pathetic here”.