Uttar Pradesh polls: Rape survivor's mother battles to survive intimidation, caste, communal push in Unnao

Asha alleged that the BSP nominee from the seat Devendra Singh 'threatened' her to withdraw from the contest lest she should face 'consequences'

“My fight is for every woman...I have been getting huge support from women,” says Asha Singh, who is contesting on a Congress ticket from Unnao Sadar assembly seat in Uttar Pradesh.

Whether that claim is true or not will be confirmed on March 10, when results will be out. But what is laudable is Asha’s tenacity to fight the polls, given what she and her family have been through.

In 2017, Asha’s daughter was raped by former BJP legislator Kuldeep Singh Senger when she went to him for a job. And her world was never the same again.

Now that Asha is in the poll fray, her life is again in upheaval as she battles caste prejudices, political attacks and intimidatory tactics by her opponents.

Also Read | Congress bets on public sympathy in Unnao Sadar seat, BJP cites govt work, policies

Asha alleged that the BSP nominee from the seat Devendra Singh ‘threatened’ her to withdraw from the contest and warned of ‘consequences’ if she didn’t.

“Devendra Singh, who faces cases of murder, extortion and other crimes, used his security personnel to threaten me and my daughters,” she said. She also wrote a letter to BSP supremo Mayawati to cancel Devendra’s nomination.

Devendra Singh, however, rejected the allegations. “The allegations are politically motivated....I never tried to threaten anyone...it is a political stunt to gain the sympathy of the voters,” he claimed.

The spectre of Senger still haunts Asha, even though the leader is serving life imprisonment on charges of rape and conspiring to kill the victim’s father in police custody. His influence can be felt in the seat, especially among the Thakur community.

Many Thakurs consider Senger, who had represented this seat in 2002 as a BSP nominee, to be “innocent”. “Senger is innocent....he has been a victim of a conspiracy hatched by his opponents,” says Manish Singh, a local resident.

‘Voting for development’

BJP candidate Pankaj Gupta, who had won the seat in the 2017 polls by a huge margin of over 40,000 votes, dismisses claims there is ‘sympathy’ for Asha.

“The people here will be voting for the development of the state,” says Gupta who is banking on the support of the Thakurs and other upper caste Hindus to notch another win.

The SP has fielded Manisha Deepak, whose husband Deepak Kumar had won the seat in a bypoll in 2014. Many believe that the contest here is between the BJP and the SP.

Asha, however, remains undeterred by the stature of her rivals and the source of her confidence are the over 1.75 lakh women voters in the constituency.

Asha’s election campaign remains low-key and mostly confined to door-to-door canvassing. Her two daughters also accompany her besides a few Congress workers. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had held a roadshow in Unnao on Sunday during which she appealed to the electorate to support Asha.

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