In the newly opened ‘The Foodie Cafe’ in Mau, the land of Mukhtar Ansari, Alka and Archana are feasting on some choc-o-chip ice-cream. In a far-off village in Gorakhpur, in her hut, Sumitra Devi proudly shows off a sack with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s picture, which has the free ration she got twice every month from the government during the pandemic.
These two pictures from Purvanchal are symbolic of what the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) feels will do the trick for it in Uttar Pradesh — the silent women voters, who could show their gratitude for free food grain and a sense of safety and security.
As News18 travels to Purvanchal, one can see girls cycling back from school in villages and also driving scooties. The other talking point in villages among women is free ration. Many women, in fact, don’t bother about local candidates, for them the face is Modi.
“Since CM Yogi Adityanath has come to power, we feel safe and don’t see gundagardi like earlier. It was earlier tough to step out like this or find such places to visit,” Alka, a first-time voter and college student, told News18 at the cafe in Mau, considered a back-of-the beyond place in Uttar Pradesh and known for mafia culture.
The cafe owner says he opened the outlet on the main Mau road about two months ago and youngsters step in on dates and for coffee. “The situation is better and conducive,” he said. Another visitor recalled how such a scenario could not be imagined in Mau a few years ago.
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Alka’s best friend Archana said she was an Akhilesh Yadav supporter, while conceding the atmosphere is much safer for girls now.
“We still do not go out at night, but it is much safer than earlier,” she said, to which Alka asked if her parents would allow her to go out at night and how would she know if she had never stepped out at night . “Whenever we go out now, there is no sense of fear and no one troubles us. This is a good point of the BJP government,” Alka said. But she added that there were not many job vacancies. “Jobs will be a big factor when we cast votes as unemployment is an issue with no recruitments,” Archana added. The friends then posed for selfies.
A senior BJP leader told News18 that not many women attend Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav’s rallies, with young men mostly thronging near the stage. “At our rallies, a lot of women come and sit in the front,” the leader contended.
News18 traveled through a dozen districts from Basti to Gorakhpur, Deoria, Mau and Azamgarh, covering about 70 Purvanchal seats.
THE ‘RATION’ CARD
Visiting multiple villages in Purvanchal, News18 found tremendous recall among women for the free ration scheme run by the Modi and Yogi governments during the pandemic. “Rice, aata, aaloo, dal, chana, oil, masalas – we got all from the Modi-Yogi governments. I will vote for those who helped me,” said Sumitra Devi in a small village in Chauri Chaura, 50 km from Gorakhpur. She showed us the sack with Modi’s picture in which the rations had come. “I will vote for Modi, I am not bothered about the local candidate. I like Modi, and I like Yogi,” Sumitra Devi told News18.
However, jobs, too, come up in most conversations in these villages. A bunch of young men approach us in another village saying there were no job opportunities and hence they were veering towards the SP, which has promised lakhs of jobs. Sumitra Devi also said she will get an LPG cylinder re-filled only after three months, as she can’t afford it and will use her earthen chulha in the interim.
“I hear the BJP will give us two free cylinders in a year. But I also need a pucca house. Look at my crumbling hut, it gets flooded in the rains,” she said, indicating that women voters now want more from the government.
In another village in Azamgarh, a group of women show the Modi-Yogi ration bags again. “Modi sent us rations and Rs 1,000 during the pandemic. Kuch toh sahara kiya hai. We will vote for Modi,” one of the women, Malti, said. She said stray cattle was an issue, “but it is not bigger than the free rations”.
The BJP had lost all 10 seats in Azamgarh district in the last elections, but may have a chance on at least two-three seats this time, primarily, as the party feels the women voters will back them.
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SP leaders, meanwhile, are trying desperately to blunt the narrative of the BJP, telling voters that the free ration scheme will finish in March after the elections. But the heat seems to have made the SP follow suit and promise free rations for the next five years if it comes to power.
UP’s backward welfare minister and Shivpur seat candidate Anil Rajbhar told News18 that women voters are grateful that the Modi government did not let any person starve during the pandemic. “Women say jisne rashan diya, vote ussi ko,” he says.
The BJP, in fact, hopes that some Muslim women voters may also opt for it.
However, at least two BJP sitting MLAs in Purvanchal told News18 that the kotedars had informed them that some Muslim families had stopped taking salt alongside the free rations for about a month now as they say “namak khake namak harami nahi karenge”.
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