February 23, 1998

Bikramganj: Bihar
Electorate: 11.2 lakh
Main Rival: V N Singh (SP)

Pranaam! Kanti Singh's greeting is courteous. The response is naked hostility. As a woman replies: "Pranaam kare se vote mili? (you think this will get you votes?)" The former coal minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) candidate from Bikramganj, constantly talking about the work she's done for villages, is realising not everyone believes her. As villager Dayal Singh tells her flatly: "Chunao ke samay awatani aur vote mangatani. Baki roj kahan rahin? (You come to this village only to seek votes)." Stumped, she pleads: "Rava log garjian banin noo. Hamra ke madad karin (You are like my guardians. Please help me)." The crowd is unmoved. As her car leaves, a villager notices the sign behind the car which says, "POWER BRAKE". "Power to break ho gayil (power has broken down)," he quips.

Kanti, 41, who made her political debut in 1995 by winning elections to the assembly and then the Lok Sabha, is worried. So at Hasan Bazar, her approach is emotional, her speech touching on her son's death: "I lost my son in an accident but each youth present here is like my son." It seems the right thing to say, for immediately cries of "Kanti tum mut ghabrana tere pichhe sara jamana (Fear not Kanti, we are with you)" rent the air. Ironically, what Kanti does or does not do won't matter. As Chandreshwar Singh, block president of Piro, says dryly: "When the time comes they'll all vote for Kanti. In the name of Lalooji."

-- Sanjay Kumar Jha

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