Across the road from Mayawati's home, Ram Prasad Chaudhary, a native of Etawah, is doing brisk business in chai and thanda. He has, he says, been running his little all purpose shop in that location for six years now, and is a die-hard fan of 'Behenji'.
He is also, as who in Lucknow is not, a political pundit with opinions on pretty much everything you care to ask.
"The Election Commission has done a wonderful job. It stopped parties from spending lavish amounts on posters and rallies and loudspeakers and buying votes -- now the elections are fair, people are casting votes not on the basis of which party has the most money and muscle, but on what each party stands for. The Election Commission now needs to do one more thing: it should bring about national elections for prime minister, for President...
"Why? Because they are the leaders of the country -- why should they be chosen by a party leader, or by MPs and MLAs? The people have the right to directly chose who should lead the country!"
"Mayawati is the only one who can stop goonda-raj in this state. She is also the one whose administration is the best. If any official misbehaved, he was immediately punished, transferred. The other parties, BJP, SP, they can't do that, because always, there is someone in Delhi who has something to say. Mayawati has no such problems -- she is the sole power in the party, so if she says something has to be done, there is no one sitting in Delhi or anywhere else to over-rule her."
"The Congress? What is the point of voting for that party? Its leader is Rahul Gandhi -- if the Congress were to win, would he have become chief minister of UP? Not a chance -- his mother wants him to be prime minister. So what is the point of voting for a party that is not even interested in forming a government in this state, a party that does not have a leader in this state?"
"Behenji is the only one who understands how the people of UP feel. Every other leader tries to divide us on caste lines, or religious lines. Even Kanshi Ram talked of Brahmins as the manuvadis and kept them at a distance. Behenji understood that you cannot rule by dividing people, you can only rule by uniting them."
"Dekhiye sahab, aakhir chamaar ho ya pandit, hum sab Hindustani to hain!"
Image: The scene outside the Samajwadi Party office.
Also see: UP mein dum hain
Advertisement
