As a poet of democracy, Pandey’s preoccupation is the common people — the dearth in their lives, the death of their dreams, their hunger, their thirst. While the BJP’s campaign makes much of development in Gorakhpur, Pandey underlines that it has been selective and has not benefited the needy: Jahan par pyaas hai dariya nahin hai/Zaroorat hai kahin, suvidha kahin hai/ Badhe hai roz aarakshan ka pratishat/Dalit basti jahan par thi, wahin hai. (Where there is thirst, there is no river/Where there is need, there is no facility/ Reservation’s percentage keeps rising/Dalit settlement, still where it used to be). Hers is a brutally honest voice, not afraid to look at the stark social and political realities in the eye. As the BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, resort to their time-tested formula of polarisation, Pandey declares: “Mansooba yahi tha chalo aasan ho gaya/phir mudda wahi Hindu-Musalman ho gaya. (This was precisely the agenda, it’s easier now/the issue, once again, is Hindu-Muslim).