Lack of development in Mainpuri, but Mulayam still 'power'ful

Potholed roads, not enough schools and hospitals, and no signs of job-creating industries – are all elements that raise doubts about Mainpuri’s status as a VIP constituency, represented by none other than Mulayam Singh Yadav, chief of Uttar Pradesh's Samajwadi Party (SP), and father of Akhilesh Yadav, the chief minister of UP.

But these doubts don’t seem to be able to dent Mulayam’s prospects as the leading candidate from here in the ongoing Lok Sabha polls. “Mulayam has given this area national recognition.... before him people knew this region only as a tobacco producing district... it’s Mulayam all the way here,” says Rajesh Yadav, a resident of Bevar.

It hardly seems to matter that people still have to go to Agra and Kanpur to get treated for life-threatening diseases. “There is a district hospital but we have to go out for specialized treatment,” said Gaurav Dixit, a resident of Mainpuri town.

Being a tobacco producing centre, cases of oral cancer are reported in large numbers from here. Though Mulayam got a cancer unit established here during his last tenure, it hasn’t started operating and equipment worth several crores has been gathering dust.

“Mulayam has nurtured Etawah but has not paid the same attention to Mainpuri,” said a Rajesh Chauhan, another resident of Bevar. Like Chauhan, many residents feel that Mulayam gives Mainpuri stepchild-like treatment, while nearby Etawah, his home district, gets a much better deal. Mainpuri residents feel jealous of the fast-paced development of Etawah. “Mulayam had promised a sugar mill and a cement factory but nothing was done about them in the past five years,” says Devendra Mishra, another town resident.

The complaints are there but they do not seem to pose much difficulty to Mulayam.