Munni Bai, SP in keen tussle in Mirzapur

With the slain 'Bandit Queen' Phoolan Devi's younger sister laying claim to her sister's legacy, the upcoming Lok Sabha by-election to fill the Mirzapur seat has turned into a keen fight between the Samajwadi Party and Munni Devi.

The Mirzapur seat in eastern Uttar Pradesh fell vacant in July last year following the brutal assassination of Phoolan Devi. Polling is scheduled to take place on February 21.

Although rivals Samajwadi Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have been winning the Mirzapur seat alternately ever since 1991, the presence of Munni Devi as the official candidate of the Rashtriya Kranti Party of former state chief minister Kalyan Singh has added a new dimension to the contest this time.

Political greenhorn Munni Devi is livid with the Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, accusing him of betrayal.

Yadav had given Munni Devi hopes that she would be nominated to contest as his party's candidates from Mirzapur after Phoolan was gunned down by armed assailants outside her high security zone Ashoka Road MP bungalow on July 25.

However, Samajwadi Party's decision to field little known Ramrati Bind as its candidate saw a furious Munni declaring her intention to contest as an independent candidate. Kalyan Singh, trying to establish his foothold in the state after he was expelled from the BJP in early 2000 came to her rescue by offering her his Rashtriya Kranti Party's nomination.

Samajwadi Party sources here say that they were unable to decide between Munni Devi and Phoolan's husband Ummed Singh and their continued fighting in public forced the leadership to opt for Ramrati Bind.

Experts say that Mirzapur is set to witness a five- cornered contest, as opposed to a four-cornered contest in the past when the BJP and the Samajwadi Party won alternately, and the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress party invariably finished third and fourth respectively.

Interestingly, all four major parties have fielded new candidates this time, making the outcome totally unpredictable.

The BJP has opted for Ramchandra Maurya in place of Virendra Singh, who had won this seat in 1991 and 1998. Unhappy at having finished third thrice, the BSP has fielded a new candidate Narendra Kushwaha in place of Rajendra Tripathi.

The rank outsider Congress party, realising that the gambit of fielding a high caste Brahmin in 1998 paid rich dividends since Shyam Hari Mishra polled over 93,000 votes as against about 14,000 votes it had got with a Muslim candidate in 1996, has put its best foot forward.

The party has nominated Rajeshpati Tripathi, grandson of famous Brahmin leader and former UP chief minister late Kamlapati Tripathi as its candidate hoping it would further consolidate its position.

However, it is the Samajwadi Party's decision to opt for a candidate outside Phoolan Devi's family that has become a hot topic for discussion.

The local Mallah (fishermen) community of Phoolan Devi is divided between her party and her sister. If Bind is a local Mallah, Munni Devi is evoking enormous sympathy with them due to her close resemblance to her more famous sister.

Phoolan's family had allowed the Samajwadi Party to cremate Phoolan in Mirzapur instead of her birthplace Behmai under Jalaun district much against their wishes, hoping Munni would be chosen to contest.

It was the Samajwadi Party chief Yadav who had offered his party's nomination to Phoolan for the first time in 1996 soon after she was released from prison and she won this Mallah dominated seat for her party for the first time.

Politically ambitious Ummed Singh, however, queered the pitch for the family by staking his own claim and in the bargain ensuring that none of them found favours with the Samajwadi Party, which now sees a real possibility of inheriting Phoolan's political legacy by completely ignoring the family.