The village of poet-lyricist Kaifi Azmi of Azamgarh district was considered a Lal Garh. But in these Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, there is a strong fight between BJP and Samajwadi Party in Mijwan of Phulpur Powai constituency. And it’s all within the family. BJP MLA Arunkant Yadav is pitted against his father Ramakant Yadav, who has been fielded by the Samajwadi Party. SP supremo Akhilesh Yadav is also an MP from Azamgarh.
Kaifi Azmi, a member of the Communist Party of India, is credited with making his ancestral village a stronghold of ideology. But with time the Left faded away. Some CPI stalwarts blame it on Mandal politics and Kamandal job quota and Ayodhya issue. CPI has not even fielded its candidate from Phulpur Powai this time. Voting is on 7th March, the last phase of voting.
Locals flag law and order and unemployment as the main issues. Mangesh, a village youth working in a private company in Delhi, said that the BJP government has done a good job on law and order and welfare schemes.
But employment is also needed at the local level so that people are not forced to migrate to earn their livelihood. Munni Lal described law and order as the biggest issue in the election.
Referring to the current BJP government and the government led by Akhilesh Yadav, he said that earlier there used to be a lot of incidents of road rage and molestation but now it is not so. We want everyone to live in peace. Bollywood actress Shabana Azmi took over the development work in Mijwan after her father’s death in 2002.
She formed the Mijwan Welfare Society and established a sewing-embroidery and computer center to help the women of the area become self-reliant. Sanyogita, in-charge of the sewing center 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 reach other areas as well. He said that as long as Kaifi Azmi was there, leftist ideology was prevalent in the region but things changed after the death of the Urdu writer.
Leaders say that after the creation of Mau district from some parts, Azamgarh district got lost in leftist politics. Mau then became a major center for this as most of the prominent leaders were from there. Senior CPI leader Atul Anjan said that Kaifi Azmi instilled leftist ideology among the people. He was very vocal about women’s rights and his poem ‘Aurat’ is famous.
Anjan said that earlier the entire Azamgarh used to be a Left stronghold, but most of its leaders were active in Lalganj and Mau. Jai Bahadur Singh of CPI was twice Lok Sabha member from Mau. Jharkhande Rai was MLA from Ghosi several times since 1952 and also became MP thrice.
According to Anjan, Azamgarh was prominent against the freedom struggle and feudalism and many revolutionaries were born here. He said that Islamic scholar Allama Shibli, who came from the district, used to give advice to Mahatma Gandhi. Anjan claimed that the CPI is still strong, but the politics of Mandal and Kamandal has weakened its electoral base.
He said, “Kaifi Azmi used to say that I was born in slave India, living in free India and wanted to die in Left India. But his wish remained unfulfilled.”
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