Three women, three families and their battle for Bidhuna

Assembly elections 2022 Live Updates | Follow latest news

Vinay was among the OBC leaders who followed in the footsteps of former UP minister Swami Prasad Maurya, who quit the BJP to join the SP ahead of the elections. Vinay cannot deliver speeches because of health issues but he canvasses for the SP, and in effect, against his daughter.

Riya Shakya

“When people ask about his (Vinay’s) daughter (Riya), he waves his hand appealing people not to vote for her,” says Devesh, Vinay’s brother who had unsuccessfully contested from this seat as a BSP nominee in 2012.

Since her father began campaigning against her, Riya altered her poll pitch to call herself “Bidhuna ki beti”. Her Twitter account too invokes her estrangement from her influential father. It says: “Kroor rishton ke daldal se nikalo mujhe, janta ki adlaat khadi hun apna lo mujhe. Jeeteji ek beti se pita ka saaya chin gaya hai, rishton ko mohra banakar meri kistmat se beena gaya hai. (Save me from the quicksand of toxic relations. I am in the people’s court, accept me)”.

The challenges aside, the BJP’s backing for Riya, it appears, is solid. Riya was on the stage with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a rally in Kannauj last week and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath too addressed a public meeting in her support earlier this week.

“Riya’s father is canvassing against her, but her mother is touring the constituency in her support. She is a youth, a woman, an OBC candidate, and she is getting the sympathy of people,” says Ajay Pal Singh, Riya’s election office in charge.

Against Riya is SP’s Rekha Verma — the wife of late MLA Mahesh Chandra Verma, and daughter-in-law of five-term Bidhuna legislator, late Dhaniram Verma, who also served as the UP Assembly Speaker. Rekha, 61, is a college principal who was earlier the block head in Bidhuna for three terms.

Rekha Verma

She is distributing a pamphlet of “appeal” that narrates the pain of losing her husband and father-in-law. Both of them died due to illnesses in 2012.

The appeal says that her “pain” will not cease if she is not supported by the public in the coming election. “Hum na ajnabi hain na paraye hain, hum aur aap ek rishtey me samaye hain (I’m not a stranger nor am I an outsider… you and I are have strong ties),” it says.

SP’s president for Bidhuna unit Ammar Siddiqui expresses confidence that Rekha, a post-graduate in social sciences who belongs to the Lodh OBC community, will emerge victorious in the constituency in part because of strong political background and social equations

Out of the 3.62 lakh voters in Bidhuna, the highest share is of the Dalit community at 20 per cent (around 75,000). The electorate includes Yadavs (42,000), Shakya (40,000), Brahmins (30,000), Kshatriyas (28,000), Lodh (25,000), Muslims (18,000) and other communities.

“Vinay Shakya’s uncle Sanjeev Shakya is contesting here as candidate of Jan Adhikar Party and he will also cut Shakya votes that will harm the BJP,” says Lucky Yadav of the Samajwadi Party.

In the last five UP assembly election, the SP has won Bidhuna three times. The remaining two went to the BJP and BSP, but both the times, it was Vinay Shakya who won it for the parties.

The Congress’s nominee from the seat is Noida-based social worker Suman Vyas. Often called an “outsider”, her rivals allege she was chosen because the Congress wanted to fulfill its promise of fielding 40 per cent women candidates in UP.

But Vyas is impervious to the criticism.

Speaking to The Indian Express, she talks about her local connect and says her in-laws are based in Bidhuna. “I have been regularly visiting here since my marriage 35 years back. I have my home here. I decided to contest from here to develop better medical infrastructure and give relief to people from crime,” she says.

Vyas is the daughter of senior Congress leader and former Union minister Baijnath Kureel, who was also the Lok Sabha MP from Ramsanehighat (SC-reserved) for five terms starting 1952.

On February 20, Bidhuna will decide between the three and eight others also in the fray. This includes the BSP’s odd-one-out candidate among the key competitors: Gaurav Raghuvanshi, a post-graduate diploma holder in business management, of the Thakur community.