Chitrakoot will do as 145;Gabbar Singh146; says

Driving the rocky 14 km from Mau-gardari to Manikpur town takes one tiring hour.

Driving the rocky 14 km from Mau-gardari to Manikpur town takes one tiring hour. That8217;s actually good progress when you consider that for the villagers of Mau-gardari, a return trip takes two full days. The reason is not the almost non-existent road, but the fear of being waylaid by Shivkumar Patel, popularly known as Dadua, the Gabbar Singh of Chitrakoot8217;s villages.

From Mau-gardari the villagers leg it over 7 km to neighbouring Madhya Pradesh and hop on a tempo that takes them to Dabhaura for Rs 10. From there it is time to board the Varanasi-Jhansi Passenger till Manikpur. The return journey is longer as it requires a night halt, with the onward train connection available only in the morning.

They have been following this route since February 2, 1999, when five families received a demand of Rs 50,000 each from Dadua. They had been singled out for being 8220;better off8221; than others. But they dared to stand up to the dacoit8212;even when Dadua threatened labourers from coming to work on their fields and nobody dared to sell a tractor to the families.

Still undeterred they got the local administration8217;s help in acquiring arms licences. Munnilal Misra, member of one of the five families, went further; he arranged to buy a tractor, and when Dadua failed to react, graduated to being a police informer.

The retribution came seven years later on August 11 last year. Munnilal and his 26-year-old son Harishchandra were returning with a drum of diesel on their tractor through the jungle road, when bullets rained on them. Their tractor was doused in the diesel and set afire. Then the father-son duo were hurled into the inferno.

For poll-bound Chitrakoot, the Munnilal killing is a chilling reminder of what could happen if voters in scores of villages disobeyed the farmaan issued recently. They have been told: Vote for the bicycle Samajwadi Party symbol.

The eerie silence in Sakraunha village, from where the edict was issued, tells you there8217;s fear all around. 8220;He is not home,8221; a woman at the pradhan8217;s house says, before a man hurriedly bolts the door. And water is a big problem in the area, but deputy pradhan Balbir Kushwaha says, 8220;Khaas dikkat nahi hain paani ki there8217;s no particular problem with water here8221;. Some unrelated questions later, he gives himself away when you ask what he does when he comes face to face with Dadua. 8220;I just say namaskar, he doesn8217;t harm you. He doesn8217;t harm anyone except those who try to mess with him,8221; he says.

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Ask who he will vote for and he stares at the ceiling of his dingy 5 ft by 7 ft house. Does the vote depend on the farmaan? There8217;s a smile. Across Chitrakoot, they smile when you ask them about the farmaan. 8220;Is baar cycle hai this time, it8217;s the cycle,8221; confirms Kushwaha. Last year, it was haathi BSP8217;s elephant

BSP candidate Daddoo Prasad, winner from Manikpur in the last two elections, admits Dadua backed him earlier. The table has turned. But not for the fearful voters.