For Kelabadi, the festival never ends. There is a long procession of people wearing saffron caps and lotus badges on their kurtas and sarees walking on a road parallel to Kelabadi. The march is led by a jeep adorned with glaze posters and belting out parody of popular Hindi song ‘hawan karenge’ from Bhag Milkha Bhag. A thin man with tousled hair is trying to match steps with the beat. Though the lyrics are not very gettable, they are clearly aimed at singing paeans in praise of BJP Chief Minister Raman Singh.

The song is interspersed with Hindi couplets panning alleged corruption of Manmohan Singh-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra. “Kaale dhan se khila hai chehra. Damaad jo thahre Raabert Wadhera (yes this is how the voice pronounces the name)”, the anchor recites before rattling off a series of ‘Raman Singh Zindabad’. The cavalcade is pitching BJP flags on every accessible pole and on top of shop facades.

A burly dusky-looking man decked with garlands is out on a greeting spree. He is shaking hands and wishing with folded palms every person visible in his sight. Whenever he comes across a temple he rushes to seek blessings of the presiding deity. The man is BJP Candidate for Dondilohara Assembly Seat Hori Lal Rawte, a former forest official. Rawte is locked into a direct fight with Congress’ Anila Bhedia, an elderly woman.

Rawte who has been fielded in place of incumbent BJP MLA Nilima Tekam has just launched his door-to-door campaign. Bhedia has not kicked off her programme but her daughter-in-law is believed to be out to enlighten people about failures of Raman Singh Government.

Waiting to reprimand
This is the first time in recent days that the election campaign for Chhattisgarh State Assembly has come so close to Kelabadi, a couple of wards inhabited by families of labourers. People living in Camp, Rama Ramai Dafai, Bajrang Chowk, Pump House and Dam Side, parts of the labour colony, are extremely angry with the political parties.

In the name of roads, they are forced to drive and walk on potholed paths topped with ochre colour gravel. They bath and wash clothes in a nallah that flows down from a mine on top of a hill. They have no sewerage, drinking water and toilets and live in mud houses. Parts of the settlement – Pump House and Dam Side – do not even have electricity! The candidates promise them moon every time an election is around the corner. But there is no delivery.

The residents of Kelabadi have more reasons not to cast their votes. But come November 6 and all of them, probably barring residents of Dam Side, will queue up outside their primary school (booth number 192, 193 and 194) to use their franchise. Many of them have been voting since India used ballot papers. The failure of political class as a whole has frustrated them. But they continue to nurture hope. “They will only do something for us if we elect them,” argues Mansa Ram, a driver employed in Raipur. Ram’s family, originally from Bihar, has been living in Kelabadi for over three decades. His late father was employed with Bhilai Steel Plant.

Ram has complaints about the quality of grams distributed through Public Distribution System (PDS) to Below Poverty Line (BPL) families in the state. Yet the doles – 25 kg rice and 10 kg wheat at Rs 2 per kg and 2 kg grams at Rs 5 per kg and over a kg of sugar at around Rs 14 per kg and two packets of free salt – are what sustain his family of five (two daughters and a son) whenever he faces a layoff. Kumar takes an off from his job and travel all the way to Dalli rajhara for voting. Ram’s mother Gwalin attributes voting to development. “We vote to get progress in our ward – for better roads, drains, electricity and improved rations.”

The residents of Kelabadi are divided when asked to spell out their reasons for voting. While many of them claim to vote for continuation of supply of subsidized grains under a scheme sanctioned by Chhattisgarh Chief Minister, there are others who feel that voting is their right as well as duty. Mahesh Kumar Maurya, a labourer, says he votes for cheap rations. “We get rations for a month in Rs 100. The CM has done this for our welfare,” Maurya elaborates. Virender Patel, a labourer employed in a kachhi mine, will at no cost allow his vote to go waste: “If my vote goes waste, it will be a blot on my citizenship.”

News Channels usher information revolution
In Kelabadi, only about 50 families get vernacular newspapers. Navbharat (not to be confused with Navbharat Times), Dainik Bhaskar and Patrika are their favourites. The rest, barring the 13 families in Dam Side, rely on Hindi news channels to understand the nitty gritty of politics and its relationship with development. “We get to know about the world from television. Nowadays one can buy a television even for Rs 500,” says Kumari Soni who is employed as a cook in a central school. Soni also logs into television to hear her favourite radio channels.

Soni knows about phool (flower for lotus) chhap and Punja (hand) chaap and Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha (CMM), a party floated by former labour leader late Shankar Guha Niyogi. CMM’s Janak Lal Thakur represented Dondilohara in Madhya Pradesh Assembly before Chhattisgarh was carved out of the latter. Thakur is once again in the fray. Soni, mother of two teenage boys and an adolescent girl, has always voted religiously. She recently attended a meeting addressed by Bhedia’s daughter-in-law. She considers voting as her duty.

Soni claims political parties buy votes by distributing liquor, sarees and money. Lata Yadav, whose husband works with a contractor, endorses Soni when she reveals that political leaders pay for each voter in a family. “They ask kitne sadsaya vote daalte hain (how many members cast votes) and never verify our answer,” the mother of five girls recounts. Lata does not know why she votes but will vote. Leela Thakur, her neighbour, is, however, hopeful that elections will one day bring good people into power. “Someday we will get a good government,” she wistfully notes.

A Vote for rations
During my tour through the wards (ward 11 and ward 12), I came across many people who feel empowered in the run up to the polls and on the day of polling. “The voting helps us to take out our frustrations,” Thakur adds. Vishnu Ram Nishad, a former Councillor of CMM and his wife Santri Bai Nishad who stood third in municipality elections in 2009 are of the view that their votes get them cheap rations. Mahadev Nishad, a first time voter, will also use his franchise to procure a BPL ration card.