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Women win top panchayat posts, but husbands 'rule'

Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

Women may have bagged 34 of 66 posts of district panchayat chiefs following elections earlier this month, but the "real power" continues to vest with their spouses or political mentors.

In Lucknow, the state capital and constituency of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, while Samajwadi Party nominee Pushpa Rawat bagged the post, political mentor Shyam Kishore Yadav, the party legislator from Sarojini Nagar assembly constituency, calls the shots.

Yadav dominates daily meetings with people, where Rawat makes a perfunctory appearance.

Yadav, known for his proximity to SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, had ensured Rawat's victory. He had pushed for her candidature and was responsible for her nomination, though the central leadership was interested in fielding a male.

In neighbouring Barabanki district, though Kusum Verma was elected panchayat chief, her husband Kirat Singh Verma, calls the shots. Having been development block chief, he wields considerable influence over the electorate.

In Faizabad, legislator Awadhesh Prasad managed an easy win for his wife Sona Devi. Former minister Prasad is national general secretary of the Samajwadi Party. He ensures his presence at meetings of the district panchayat board, so that Sona Devi does not falter.

Said a confidant of Prasad, "Left to himself, he would have contested the election. But, he is already a legislator.''

In Hathras, Lakhimpur-Kheri, Balrampur and Banda too, wives had been fielded by ministers, legislators and influential politicians, who could not contest either because of the seat being reserved for women or because they already held other posts.

Or take the cases of Seema Upadhaya, who is the wife of Bahujan Samaj Party leader and former UP minister Ramveer Upadhaya in Hathras, and Leela Devi, who is the wife of Co-operatives Minister Ram Kumar Verma in Lakhimpur Kheri. Likewise in Balrampur, Saroj Rani Singh was the officially elected BJP nominee, but her husband Dev Singh, the state BJP vice president and former parliamentarian, is the de facto boss.

Similarly, state minister Shiv Shankar Singh hogged the limelight following the election of his wife Krishna Devi in Banda.

Former parliamentarian Pankaj Chaudhary got his mother and sister elected from neighbouring districts. He managed wins for his mother Ujjwala Chaudhary from Maharajganj and sister Sadhana Chaudhary from Siddharthnagar district.

Slain badminton champion Syed Modi 's widow Amita Singh is among the few exceptions. Now married to former minister Sanjay Singh, the scion of the erstwhile princely state of Amethi, Amita defeated the official Congress nominee in Sonia Gandhi's political home district of Sultanpur.

Though it was known that her victory was due to her second husband, she claimed all the credit.

Among the few elected women who made it on their own was Gorakhpur's Shubhawati Devi, who joined politics following the death of her husband, who was a member of Parliament.

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