Swamped Terai in development time warp as politicians draw battle lines

Kheri: Uttar Pradesh’s largest district, Lakhimpur Kheri, hugging the international border with Nepal was a portrait of paradox on Saturday with the campaign dust settling down in the Kheri Lok Sabha seat while the poll juggernaut rolling unbridled in its other half, Dhaurahra. The Terai region, which straddles two Lok Sabha constituencies will go to polls in two different phases – Kheri on Monday and Dhaurahra in the fifth phase on May 6.

On the ground, the borders of the two constituencies blur into one big picture of backwardness. The broad gauge railway line has been laid, but the first train is yet to chug into Kheri station even 70 years after independence. And large areas are swamped by swollen Mohana and Ghagra rivers every year, leaving thousands marooned during the monsoon. At least 40 villages were cut off by floods last year after Nepal released excess water. Also, large swathes of land in Nighasan Assembly segment and the Sikh hamlet of Paliya have been swallowed by the gushing waters of Sharda. Cane farmers are sinking in debt with the five private sugar mills in the hinterland refusing to pay dues, which have peaked to Rs 500crore this year. Barring the road network, the Terai region is still caught in time warp of development.

“The poll cacophony rings hollow. Our lives haven’t changed with politicians knocking our doors and vanishing after polls,” said Sunil Gupta, a villager in Maigalganj.

But Samajwadi Party candidate Dr Purvi Verma, 29, perhaps the only other JNU student after Kanhaiya Kumar to hit the hustings, exudes hope. “Yes, I am a first-time candidate. I quit my job at RML Hospital, Delhi, to take the plunge. Kheri needs social empathy and I need an opportunity to prove myself. I have a political legacy and I want to take this forward in Kheri, while pursuing my doctorate in public health at JNU,” she told TOI.

What’s the solution to the annual flood mayhem in Kheri? “The dams need to be desilted. There is paralysis of development here. The last time, PM Modi visited Kheri, he called it a sugar bowl. Then why are cane farmers starving. The Akhilesh government had laid the foundation of the agriculture university at Jamnabad, but nothing has moved forward,” she said.

Sitting BJP MP Ajay Mishra Teni, who is the party’s pick for the second time, says, “The Modi factor is working magic again. I really have no competition. I am sitting pretty and ready to go to Parliament again. The gatbandhan will have no effect on my votebank.”

Veteran Congress leader and party candidate Zafar Ali Naqvi had watched fortunes swing in the past and was decimated the Modi wave in 2014. He’s leaving no stone unturned to turn votes in his favour. And while silence fell in Kheri at 5pm, Congress’ Jiten Prasada, BJP’s Rekha Verma and BSP’s Arshad Siddiqui continued with their campaign blitzkrieg in neighbouring Dhaurahra, which will go to polls on May 6.