Santokhi Ram's seamed face split into a wide, bidi-stained grin as a village youth told him that Mayawati was no longer chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. "Is it true? We in the Harijan basti had not heard. Good it happened. She is a Harijan, no? But she did nothing for us," he says. A denizen of Dalit-dominated Sevpur Parasrampur in the BSP stronghold of Chanda, he launches into a litany of complaints, assisted by his neighbours.
"The government fixed Rs 35 as the minimum wage for daily workers. We get not even Rs 22," he claims.,
The main cause for their pique is that while some landless Dalit labourers have received pattas (land deeds) in their name, the government has not been able to ensure kabza (possession). Santokhi Ram points to the electric poles near his hut. "Do you see these electric wires? And this well? All this work was done during the time of the Congress. Indira Gandhi gave us all these facilities," he says. The underlying nostalgia about the days of the united Congress under the Gandhis cannot be missed. "If Sonia Gandhi comes forward or even if she gives her blessings to someone, we will vote for the Congress. Otherwise, there is no choice," says Santokhi Ram.
In Annapur, a few kilometres away, Chotey Lal is softer in his criticism of Mayawati: "How will she know what is happening if no one from the BSP comes to find out? The MLA, Safdar Raza, has not shown his face here even once."
But given the absence of a united Congress to provide a credible alternative, the BSP's loss is likely to be only at the level of grassroots workers who had not received the 'fruits' of the party's short stint in power.
As for the BJP, anger against its 'unholy' tie-up with the BSP has already been mitigated. In largely non-Yadav Chanda, the Samajwadi Party does not have a significant presence and the Kurmis and the Brahmins hail BJP's Kalyan Singh as their leader. Annapur's S.K. Dubey admits to a slight pro-Congress tilt among the Brahmins when the possibility of Sonia Gandhi entering the field loomed large, but the swing was quickly corrected. Brahmins and Dalits may have voted together once, he says, but never again.
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