Back in the day, poet-lyricist Kaifi Azmi’s village in Azamgarh district was considered a red bastion. But in these Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, Mijwan in Phoolpur Powai constituency is seeing a fierce battle between the BJP and the Samajwadi Party.
And it’s all within the family. BJP MLA Arunkant Yadav is locked in a fight with his father Ramakant Yadav, fielded by the Samajwadi Party. SP supremo Akhilesh Yadav is also an MP from Azamgarh.
Kaifi Azmi, who was a member of the Communist Party of India, is credited with turning his ancestral village into a stronghold of the ideology. But over the years, the Left faded out. Some CPI veterans blame it on the politics of ‘Mandal and kamandal” – job quotas and the Ayodhya issue.
The CPI has not even fielded a candidate from Phoolpur Powai this time. Polling is on March 7, the final phase of the elections.
Local people flag law and order and unemployment as the main issues.
Mangesh, a young man from the village who works in a private company in Delhi, said the BJP government has done a good job on law and order, and welfare schemes.
But there is also the need for employment at the local level so that people are not forced to migrate to earn their livelihood, he added.
Munni Lal picked law and order as the “biggest issue” in the elections.
“Earlier there used to be a lot of incidents of road rage and molestation but now it is not so,” he said, referring to the current BJP government and the one led by Akhilesh Yadav. “We want everyone to live in peace.”
Bollywood actor Shabana Azmi took on the work of development in Mijwan after her father’s death in 2002.
She formed the Mijwan Welfare Society and established a sewing-embroidery and computer centre to help women in the area to become self-reliant.
Sanyogita, in-charge of the sewing centre set up by the welfare society, told PTI, "People here want more development. Initially Abba (Kaifi Azmi) and then Shabana baji developed Mijwan, but development should also reach other areas."
She said that as long as Kaifi Azmi was there, the ideology of the left prevailed in the area but things changed after the Urdu writer's death.
Leaders says Azamgarh district lost out in Left politics after the creation of Mau district from some parts carved out of it. Mau then became a major centre for it as most of the prominent leaders were from there.
Senior CPI leader Atul Anjan said Kaifi Azmi instilled the Left ideology in people. He was very vocal about women's rights – and his poem 'Aurat' is well-known.
Anjan said earlier entire Azamgarh used to be a stronghold of the left, but most of its leaders were active in Lalganj and Mau.
CPI’s Jai Bahadur Singh from Mau was a member of the Lok Sabha twice. Jharkhande Rai was the MLA from Ghosi several times since 1952, and also became an MP thrice.
According to Anjan, Azamgarh was prominent in the fight for Independence and against feudalism, and many revolutionaries were born here. Islamic scholar Allama Shibli, who came from the district, used to advise Mahatma Gandhi, he said.
Anjan claimed that the CPI is still strong, but the politics over Mandal and kamandal has weakened its electoral base.
"Kaifi Azmi used to say that I was born in slave India, living in free India and wanted to die in leftist India. But his wish remained unfulfilled,” he said.
