Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and his son and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav have finally woken up from their apathy towards Azamgarh, which neither of them had visited since the senior Yadav managed to clinch the parliamentary seat in the midst of a Narendra Modi wave in May 2014.
Sensing simmers of resentment from the Yadav-Muslim dominated electorate, the father-son-duo have decided to pay a visit to the constituency with a huge hamper of ‘gifts’ on February 6.
According to top official sources, the hamper was expected to be of the order of Rs 5,500 crore, with a blue-print to do a ‘Saifai’ in Azamgarh. Even though it was somewhat late in the day, Mulayam is stated to have expressed his desire to develop the backward Azamgarh on the lines of his native home, Saifai in the Etawah district.
Once an innocuous dusty village, Saifai now looks like a small smart town dotted with everything that a modern city can boast of -- be it a 700-bed multi super-specialty hospital, state-of art sports stadiums, a full-scale airstrip, a giant-sized auditorium, an ultramodern school, a para-medical institute, classy residential facilities with roads and civic amenities matching the best in the state capital.
“Azamgarh too will soon witness a transformation,” claims a top official, closely involved with the preparation of a project report on various tasks to be undertaken in the constituency, which Mulayam chose to retain after winning from his pocket burrow, Mainpuri as well.
While Mainpuri was given away to a young member of the Yadav clan (Mulayam’s grand nephew, Tejpal), who won hands down in a subsequent bye-election, it continues to remain neglected.
While Mainpuri is dominated by Yadavs alone, Azamgarh has a substantial population of Muslims, who had supported Mulayam, who had promised to give the otherwise neglected place a grand face-lift.
Eight months down, neither he nor his chief minister son thought of looking towards Azamgarh, where murmurs of resentment against the ruling clan had begun to surface.
No sooner than realisation dawned on the powers that be, the chief minister’s office got into action. Azamgarh district magistrate was formally asked to submit a project report on what all was required to be done in the constituency.
“Meetings were held at the highest level after which we sought Netaji’s (read Mulayam) approval, following which proposals worth over Rs 5,500 crore were sent to the chief minister’s office,” disclosed district magistrate Ranvir Prasad.
According to him, the proposals include modernisation of an existing airstrip, upgradation of four local community health centres into 100-bed modern hospitals, construction of six major bridges and sprucing up of all local roads including six key roads connecting different parts of the district.
Modernisation of a sick state-run sugar mill is also being undertaken at a cost of Rs. 425 crore. The Tamauli village, adopted by Mulayam, will witness construction of a sports stadium and a large dairy unit.
The ruling clan’s sudden focus on Azamgarh has led even insiders to believe that the father-son duo was trying to make up for the 8-month neglect.
