Power flows from the barrels of the gun. For years, the dreaded Bandits who used to issue diktats to the voters have dominated the elections in the Chambal region of Uttar Pradesh.
The various gangs of Bandit ruled the roost on over a dozen seats of Etawah, Aauriyya, Mahoba, Hamipur, Jalaun and Chitrakoot of Chambal region in UP for decades. Barring Chitrakoot, all these districts would go to poll in the third phase on UP elections this Sunday.
On several occasions in the past, the Bandits had fielded their kins in the elections and ensured victory. Late bandit queen Phoolan Devi even contested parliament elections and was elected twice from Mirzapur in UP while the kins of dreaded dacoit Shiv Kumar alias Dadua have been contesting elections for the last two decades and succeeded many times.
However, in the 2022 UP Assembly polls, the scene has changed in the ravines of Chambal with almost no gang of dacoits active in the region. Most of them are either dead or have become dormant due to various joint operations launched by the UP and Madhya Pradesh police.
In November last year, UP Police had killed dreaded bandit Gauri Yadav in the Chitrakoot district. His being the last active gang of dacoits in the Chambal region, there is no one left now to issue diktats to voters, says RN Shukla, a former circle officer of UP Police who served for several years in this area.
According to him, Ram Singh, the son of late bandit King Dadua is in the fray this time on an SP ticket from Patti assembly seat in Pratapgarh district, but there are no reports of anyone terrorizing voters in his name. Dadua was killed in a police encounter in 2009 in Chitrakoot district.
Recalling the terror of Dadua, a former police officer, JV Singh, said his appeal to the voters was enough to ensure the victory of candidates on many seats in Chitrakoot, Pratapgarh and Banda district.
The brother of Dadua, Bal Kumar and Son Ram Kumar has been elected legislator and member of parliament several times and all due to the terror of the former. Besides him, the electoral process of Chambal was largely influenced in past by noted gangs of dacoits Nirbhay Gujjar, Ambika Thokiya, Lala Ram and Sri Ram.
All these bandits have been killed long back and their gang members either are in jail or have been doing meagre works for survival.
