DNA Exclusive: Is it beginning of democracy for some, end of road for others in UP this time?

New Delhi: Uttar Pradesh Assembly Elections 2022 seems to be shaping up as a high-voltage neck-to-neck political race for the throne with almost all the key players, including Narendra Modi, Yogi Adityanath, Akhilesh Yadav, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra among others firmly on the ground.

As the voters in the state are gearing up to vote for the 403 assembly constituencies that hold the potential to set the tone for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in the country and deviate the so-called swaying political waves, there are some villages in Uttar Pradesh, which are going to vote independently after a long wait of 30 years while for some this will be the last polling altogether.

Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary, in his highly popular prime time show DNA aired on January 21, 2022, talked about two famous villages in Uttar Pradesh- Bikru, where voters after a long wait of 30 years will vote democratically for the first time and Sonbhadra, where 11 remote villages will be voting for the last time.

The beginning of democracy for Bikru village

Situated in the outskirts of Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur, Bikru village was once home to dreaded gangster Vijay Dubey for the past 30 years and like several other crusades, who, when and how to vote was Dubey’s discretion.

According to locals. Vijay Dubey and his men never let them vote as per their wishes and whosoever defied his orders were given violent punishments.

In July 2020, Vikas Dubey was arrested by UP police after a heavy exchange of fire that killed as many as 8 police officials. Later, Dubey was also killed in a controversial encounter.

On February 20, 2022, Bikru village will vote independently within the spirit of the Indian Constitution for the first time in over 3 decades.

The end of democracy for Sonbhadra

While locals in Bikru village as well as in the entire state are prepping to vote for the next government in Uttar Pradesh, almost 11 villages in the Sonbhadra region are waiting for their last elections as, by the next polls, these villages will not remain on the map of Uttar Pradesh.

All these villages, situated in the Sombhadra district of Uttar Pradesh, will be submerged underwater by the next assembly elections owing to a dam construction scheme under the Uttar Pradesh government’s irrigation project.

The construction of this dam will be completed by the end of this year shoving around 11 villages with 25 thousand locals underwater. Now, all these 25 thousand voters want the government to help them so that their future does not sink like that of their villages.

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh, the largest Indian state in terms of population will go to polls from February 10 in a phased manner. The polling will be held in 7 phases till March 7.