Ashok Mahato owns five acres of land, his only source of income. Last week, he mortgaged two acres and got Rs 1 lakh in return from a local moneylender. But that money proved insufficient and Mahato now plans to mortgage one more acre for Rs 50,000. Mahato is contesting the panchayat polls for the post of mukhiya. ?Without enough money you cannot have an effective election campaign,? he says.
Bero is in the midst of a campaign storm; after all, Jharkhand is witnessing its first panchayat elections. The enthusiasm of the voters can be gauged from the fact that the CPI(Maoist) bandh made little impact on November 30. Like other shopkeepers, Navin Singh, owner of a photocopy machine, did not close his shop in view of the bandh. He had a job on hand: photocopying pamphlets for Mahato.
Till recently, Bero and its neighbouring villages of Nagri, Itki and Lapung were affected by Maoist violence and more than 15 persons had been branded as ?traitors? and killed by the rebels since January 1 this year. After the panchayat polls were notified on October 14, the CPI(Maoist) and its breakaway factions such as Tritya Prastuti Committee and Jharkhand Liberation Tigers had put up posters asking villagers to boycott the elections.
Voter turnout in the first of the five-phase polls for the three-tier panchayats held in many other Maoist-affected areas on November 27 varied between 50 and 80%. The second phase is slated to be held in places including Bero on December 6, and the Maoists do not seem to matter to the people here.
Posters and banners can be seen on the walls of mud huts that neither have electricity nor access to motorable roads. People move about in groups, discussing politics. Students roam with Mahato, raising slogans, dancing to drum beats.
?Non availability of electricity, muddy roads and water scarcity are the main problems of my panchayat area and I will try my best to solve these if I get elected,? promises Mahato.
?The elections are not being held on party basis. However, both the ruling BJP-JMM-AJSU-JD(U) coalition and the Opposition Congress, CPI, CPM, CPI(ML) and Jharkhand Vikas Morcha are reportedly pulling the strings from behind the scenes,? says Ram Nagina Singh, a school teacher at Lapung.
?I will vote for a candidate who will get every poor family enrolled as a BPL family and bring the corrupt officials of the block development office to book,? says Praveen Manjhi, a farmer at Itki.
In a meeting held on Monday, the state government resolved to make the offices of the Gram Panchayat, Panchayat Samiti and Zila Parishad functional as soon as the polls conclude on December 24. ?We have initiated measures to ensure that they empower the elected representatives as per law,? said Panchayati Raj director Ganesh Prasad. Official documents reveal more than 3,200 of the 4,423 panchayats do not have any office.