AS NARENDRA Modi cements his place in the BJP pantheon with bid for a third term in power, the thrum of the election campaign is largely missing from the only other leader of the party to precede him to the Prime Minister's post. In Bateshwar, located on the banks of the Yamuna, around 80 km from Agra, Atal Bihari Vajpayee's extended family is still waiting for a government college, among other promises made by the Uttar Pradesh government. Mangalacharan Shukla, 75, says: “Yogi (Adityanath) ji visited here for the asthi visarjan (immersion of ashes) of Vajpayee ji (on September 8, 2018) and promised many things, including a college. But most of the promises remain unfulfilled. They remember Vajpayee ji only on December 25 (his birth anniversary) and August 16 (his death anniversary).” Ironically, all those years ago, it was for the sake of better education of his children that Vajpayee's father had moved with his family to Gwalior. In another bit of irony, the Higher Education Minister in the Adityanath government, Yogendra Upadhyay, is an MLA from nearby Agra. Vajpayee, who spent many years of his childhood in Bateshwar, made just one visit to the village after he became the PM. Villagers say that several projects followed, including a railway line from Agra to Etawah via Bateshwar. However, a college, which almost everyone in this village of 7,000 voters names as their top priority, remains out of reach. No school nearby offers classes beyond Class 10, and even to finish schooling, students have to travel at least 12 km. Raghuveer Nishad, whose wife Neksa Devi is the village pradhan, says: “Our children need good quality education, a facility for intermediate and higher education.” Last year, CM Adityanath himself inaugurated a 'Cultural Sankul Kendra' in the memory of Vajpayee, he points out. So he hopes the college too is on the government's agenda. Bateshwar is part of the Fatehpur Sikri Lok Sabha constituency, from where sitting BJP MP Rajkumar Chahar, a Jat, is contesting again. The Congress has fielded Ramnath Sikarwar, a Thakur, in alliance with the Samajwadi Party, while the BSP has fielded Ramniwas Sharma. However, in a worry for the BJP Rameshwar Chaudhary, a Jat and the son of the BJP's Fatehpur Sikri Assembly seat MLA, Babulal Chaudhary, is also in the race, as an Independent. The Thakur votes will also get divided due to the presence of Sikarwar, who additionally is a Kargil War veteran. All the other four Assembly seats under the Lok Sabha seat – Agra Rural-SC, Kheragarh, Fatehabad and Bah – are also held by the BJP. Bateshwar falls under the Bah Assembly segment, where the MLA is Rani Pakshalika Singh (a Thakur). Sachin Vajpayee, who runs a skill centre in the village, says: “The college that had been announced by Yogi ji instead went to another location in the area, which comes under an influential leader. On our repeated requests, another college was proposed by the UP government in June 2021, but that is still not approved.” Referring to Upadhyay, Sachin adds: “When he was not a minister, it seemed he was fighting for us. Now he himself handles Higher Education, but has not taken up this urgent issue.” Shukla, who was a government teacher in Rajasthan before his retirement, says that apart from college, the youths here need jobs and hence some industrial units. “Some projects were announced by MP Chahar ji, but later he said that funds had been stopped due to Covid-19 and he could not do anything.” Calls to Chahar and MLA Pakshalika Singh went unanswered. A senior official at UP's Directorate of Higher Education, who did not want to be named, said the projects were “under process”. “Recently, some queries were raised, and we have addressed them. I can’t give an exact time frame though for when the projects will start.” Ajay Yadav and Gaurav Yadav, who are both in their 20s, talk about how the changed Army recruitment process under Agniveer has also closed that option for many. “Earlier, you would have found dozens of youths here, morning and evening, practising for recruitment in the Army. But now there are none. Now the only hope are police and paramilitary forces. Par paper bhi baar-baar leak ho jaata hai. Rajya sarkar theek se pareeksha tak nahin kara paati (But papers too keep getting leaked. The state government can't even hold recruitment exams properly). Where should the youths go now? Why should we vote for the BJP in such a situation?” There are others who can't hide their anger either. At a Common Service Centre (CSC) run by Balveer Singh Verma, a contractual teacher has come from a nearby village for some work. Vinod Singh, who is a Rajput, says: “My two sons qualified for CTET (for teacher recruitment). But since 2018, no vacancies for teachers have been notified in UP. Some candidates from our area were selected in Bihar and are working there. It is shameful that people have to work hundreds of kilometres away as teachers.” Singh also brings up the dreams “killed” by Agniveer. Of Bateshwar's population, the Nishads (the boatmen community) and Yadavs, both OBCs, are the most dominant, at around 1,200 each. Besides, there are a sizable number of Goswamis, Kushwahas, Brahmins, Rajputs, and Dalits, including Jatavs. The Jats are also OBCs in UP. Verma, the owner of the CSC that provides help with accessing government schemes, says it is not clear though if the issues people talk about will be a decisive factor for them in the elections. “Around 50 people come to my centre daily and talk about so many things. But I know that they change their minds at the last moment, taking into consideration many things.” While Raghuveer refuses to talk about his preference, Shukla admits that despite everything, despite the Modi government “not doing anything for controlling corruption and for providing employment”, he will still vote for the BJP.
