Angry residents of Dharmendra Pradhan's adopted village in Bihar want to teach him a lesson

Merely 10 kilometres away from Patna, Lakhim Bigha village still awaits development. Not just because of its proximity to the state capital, the village also holds importance as it is adopted by Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

While political parties are raising caste and reservation issues, voters in villages are taking this election as an opportunity to teach a lesson to non-performing MLAs.

Amidst heated political air, here are some pictures and first person accounts of the ground reality of development claims by political parties in this elections.

Lakhim Bigha, which narrates the tale of plight and negligence, came into limelight after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Cabinet colleague Dharmendra Pradhan adopted it. Pradhan who is in-charge of Bihar elections has also served as the state party chief. He is the Rajya Sabha MP from Bihar quota at present.

The irony doesn’t end here, BJP also represents both the Lok Sabha and state Assembly constituency of this village.

Surrounded by modern high rise apartments, Lakhim Bigha does not even have proper roads. Nitish government is known for bringing the deplorable condition of roads in Bihar to a normal state, but development of roads in this village is far from reality.

Talking about the Bihar elections, a barber by profession, Suresh Thakur blatantly says, “I don’t know, everyone is same. I am exercising my franchise since last 55 years. What happened? You already saw the condition of the road, show me how it looks."

"Nitish came to limelight by his promise of giving us better roads, but he forgot us,” Thakur laments.

The population of the village is around 10,000 among which Yadavs are in majority followed by Kurmis.

While they know that Dharmendra Pradhan has adopted the village, the villagers claim that he has never visited the area.

As we move ahead, the condition of the roads look even more deplorable. A buffalo was seen tied just outside a veterinary hospital but when enquired, we came to know that the buffalo was not brought for treatment but the owner used to tie his cattle there.

In the entire Lakhim Bigha, there is a small market which was robbed two months ago.

Shopkeepers Ravi Kumar and Kunal Singh say, “We immediately called MLA Asha Sinha but she never bothered to come. Even we were taken to police station. Yadavs are often giving shelter to miscreants. And police also listens to them. We are going to vote for change. We want to change the sitting MLA Asha Sinha.”

Worth mentioning here is that Asha Sinha also belongs to Yadav community and she is in contesting for the third term but is facing a stiff fight from RJD’s RajKishore Yadav.

“We don’t know if RJD candidate wins from this constituency, how CM candidate will change but we want to change the MLA. The incompetent MLA has done nothing for this constituency,” the residents say.

Pradhan had adopted the village after Narendra Modi appealed to every MP to develop at least one village in their five years tenure. “Dharmendra Pradhan visited the village after adopting it. And you know what he had told that time. I didn’t adopt this village but the Lakhim Bigha has adopted me. And his statement is getting true now. Look what is happening," an angry villager Sant Ram says.

A lady belonging to the village Chanda Devi, showed the electric wire and said, “See, on paper, we are living in capital Patna. But still waiting for an electric pole to be fixed here. Either Dharmendra Pradhan or Asha Sinha, if they dare to enter the village, we will teach them a lessons.”

Chanda Devi says she has lots of expectations that Pradhan has adopted this village after PM Modi’s appeal then there will be some changes and development work will take palce. “But there is no high school in such a big village. Leave the school, there is no hospital and even hand pumps have got dried. There is no facility of drinking water. So what we will do with this type of model village.”

Despite this, villagers say that if BJP changes its candidate they will vote for change in the state.

However, while talking to the people from other places, Asha Sinha’s victory seems to be confirmed whether anyone is happy with her or not as people are voting for BJP not for candidate.

70-year-old Vijay Kumar Kamal says, “Reetlal Yadav’s brother is also in fray so he will also break the RJD’s vote. This will help Asha Sinha to secure victory.”

Reetlal Yadav is believed to be musclemen politician and is currently behind the bars. He is facing murder charges of current BJP MLA Asha Sinha’s husband.

People say that in last four years due to urbanisation, the influence of Yadavs has been reduced significantly and this could help Asha Sinha in this election too.

In 2010 elections, Asha Sinha defeated independent Candidate Reetlal Yadav by over a margin 18,000 votes. If we look at the 2014 Lok Sabha election data, BJP had taken lead over its rival by 26 thousand votes in this constituency.