VALLABHNAGAR: An Udaipur region that once supplied betel leaves to Pakistan via trains is today crying for job opportunities and roadways bus connectivity with the state capital. Kanod, a part of the Vallabhnagar assembly constituency in Udaipur district, was famous for its ‘ paan’ just like that of Banaras. Betel leaves grown here pleased gods and goddesses, in whose worship these were used, and calmed the taste buds of people from Karachi in Pakistan to Chennai in South India.
Gradually, the betel cultivation faded out as ground water levels receded due to over exploitation to meet the growing population’s demands. Local trees that produced the unique Kanod flavour ‘kattha’ (catechu) were indiscriminately felled, killing the area’s ‘paan’ business for good. Villagers lost employment opportunities and began to grapple with a new problem—drinking water scarcity.
Leaders and administrators did little for rainwater harvesting or interconnecting south Rajasthan’s numerous lakes and rivers.
“For more than two decades we have been hearing leaders and babus talk about the Menar-Vana water project, but nothing is happening on the ground. Every summer women and children walk across hilly terrains in search of potable water from the few wells and handpumps left with water, which has high fluoride contents,” says Bhanwar Lal, a resident of Kanod.
Aware of the locals’ difficulties, candidates contesting the Vallabhnagar bypoll scheduled on October 30, are heaping promises once again to bring them water, jobs and education facilities. BJP candidate Himmat Singh Jhala is promising water from Jaisamand lake, situated 51-km southeast of Udaipur.
Congress candidate Preeti Shaktawat is harping on having higher education institutes. Janata Sena candidate and ex-MLA Randhir Singh Bhinder and Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) candidate Udai Lal Dangi are similarly assuring of alleviating the constituency’s problems that have existed election after election.
“Whatever little development that has happened here so far, has been in Bhinder only. The promised girls’ college has also gone to Bhinder,” points out Nanaram, a resident of the constituency’s Kurabad area. Besides Bhinder, the assembly seat comprises Vallabhnagar, Bhatewar, Kurabad and Kanod regions that have over 400 villages scattered far and wide. National highways run along the constituency’s borders, but the poor have to depend on just two Rajasthan roadways buses a day to reach Jaipur.
Interior roads are broken and people have to travel to Udaipur for employment and higher education. The bypoll necessitated by the demise of sitting legislator Gajendra Singh Shaktawat is being fought on ‘sympathy’ votes of different kinds rather than on ideas that can change people’s lives.
Preeti is seeking votes in the name of her late husband. ‘Tiger abhi zinda hai’ is her election catch line eulogising the boldness for which her MLA husband was known and her commitment to fulfilling his unfinished works.
Udai Lal wants voter’s sympathy for being ‘dumped’ by BJP. RLP founder Hanuman Beniwal camping in the region has turned the election into Rajput versus non-Rajput (Patel, Dalit, Brahmin), since the remaining three key candidates are Rajput. RLP is eyeing Gujjar votes too, as former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot has stayed away from campaigning.
Chief minister Ashok Gehlot has planned an election rally in Kurabad on Tuesday, the last day of campaigning. BJP is projecting its candidate as one who rose from being a security guard sleeping on Delhi roads to one who generated jobs for others and worked tirelessly for people during the pandemic.
Janata Sena has built a strong base for itself opposing BJP leader Gulab Chand Kataria for long. The seat is no wonder headed for a quadrilateral contest, with voter support swinging each day.
