In Dabangg 2, when the jeep of protagonist inspector Chulbul Pandey (played by Salman Khan) lands up in a large pit and the engine chokes to death in a cloud of dust, he asks his constable in his typical comic baritone, “Yeh kiska khet hai, Sharmaji.” And the constable replies meekly, “Sir, ye toh Kanpur ka main chauraha hai.”

While the joke had viewers of the movie into peals of laughter, I, having lived in those parts of UP for three decades, can vouch for its authenticity. And when the ruling Samajwadi Party decided on Wednesday to give comedian Raju Srivastava a ticket to contest the next Lok Sabha poll from here, the move only complemented the joke — an artistic justice of the sort.  

The industrial city, once touted by the colonial masters as the Manchester of the East, is at best a reeking cadaver of its glorious past. In terms of availability of the basic amenities, the city can beat even many areas in Bastar. Residents don’t count hours of power outage anymore; instead, they count minutes of supply. City newspapers don’t waste any space now on air pollution figures here; just the travellers passing by the city complain of itchy eyes. Residents are not provoked by anything now; from anger to frustration to despair to monotony — it has been a smooth transition for them so far.

The sitting MP, union coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal, also famous for his old-wife-loses-charm comment, has sung only one song for these many years: the state government is punishing the city for choosing a Congress candidate. He is the third time MP from here. But his plight has now reduced him to a comic helplessness which certainly makes him a better match for the comedian at least in the latter’s area of work.

The comedian on his part had been looking for a Lok Sabha ticket since 2009. Initially, he met several Congress leaders and sought ticket from Lucknow or Allahabad. Later, he had also contacted in vain the BSP leaders and promised that he would easily defeat Jaiswal if he was fielded from Kanpur.

On the political party’s part, on the same day, the Samajwadi Party also confirmed the ticket to Bal Kumar Patel, brother of dreaded dacoit Shiv Kumar Patel, who was killed by UP STF in 2007, from Mirzapur. So to say, the comedian is just an exception, all other candidates of the party are pretty serious fellas.

Since everybody is right, maybe then, the joke is on the city.