Akhilesh does a Kejriwal; e-rickshaws shore up support for SP in Kanpur

Rickshaw pullers, e-rickshaw and auto-rickshaw drivers have become new supporters of SP in Kanpur

akhilesh, yadav, BSP, election, UP — Akhilesh Yadav

Last Updated : Feb 15 2017 | 10:13 AM IST

Rakesh Kumar, in his forties, was until three months back a rickshaw puller and supplemented his meagre income to support his family of six by working as a labourer.

Today, Kumar has become a mascot for Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav’s re-election bid. In December, Kumar became one of the 224 rickshaw pullers in Kanpur city on whom fortune smiled when the CM himself gave each of them a battery operated e-rickshaw, and free of cost.

“The contest is between kamal (Bharatiya Janata Party) and cycle (Samajwadi Party),” Kumar speaks about the five assembly segments that are part of the Kanpur city Lok Sabha constituency. So, whom does he support? “My life has transformed and it is all thanks to Akhilesh bhaiyya,” Kumar gushes, confessing how he is a recent convert and has earlier been voting the Congress. In recent elections, the BJP has held sway in Kanpur city assembly segments. In 2014, it sent BJP’s Murli Manohar Joshi to Lok Sabha, but it was Congress’ Sri Prakash Jaiswal who won in 2004 and 2009.

Of late, rickshaw pullers, e-rickshaw and auto-rickshaw drivers like Kumar have become supporters of Samajwadi Party in Kanpur. “It isn’t about Samajwadi Party but Akhilesh Yadav. He has rid the party of its goons and will purge it further if he forms the government,” Madan, another e-rickshaw driver, says. An urban electorate that seldom voted for Samajwadi Party for its reputation as a party of ‘bahubalis’, or musclemen, who extorted money from the underclass, now comprises Akhilesh Yadav’s support base.

The 43-year-old engineer, it would seem, has learnt from a fellow engineering graduate, Chief Minister of Delhi and Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal. In the run-up to the February 2015 assembly polls in Delhi, e-rickshaw and auto-rickshaw drivers turned out to be the ambassadors for Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party. They spread his message unabashedly. It is something that Akhilesh Yadav has attempted to replicate in cities and towns of UP.

As he drives around Kanpur city, it is evident that Kumar is a popular man. He greets several e-rickshaw drivers and is greeted back. He says it is a new found camaraderie. “I was one of the first to learn to drive and taught others,” he says. Kumar and Madan elaborate their allegiance to Akhilesh Yadav. They say it used to be a struggle to earn Rs 300 and now they make nearly Rs 500. “Imagine the sweat and blood that goes into pulling a pedal rickshaw on a hot summer day. My lungs are in a mess, but look how soon life can change,” he says.

When other e-rickshaw halts at a traffic intersection, Kumar points out other advantages of the vehicle. The e-rickshaw is filled to the brim with large pots, pans and sacksful of cereals and pulses. The vehicles not only seat seven-eight people, it come handy while transporting goods.

Kumar and others say if there was any doubt about their support to Akhilesh Yadav, the ‘note ban’ decision of Narendra Modi government has helped them make up their minds. “But did note ban impact him and his fellow drivers?” Kumar says it didn’t. “But Modi promised gains. Where are the gains? Why were people made to queue up outside ATMs? Now, Akhilesh bhaiyya has done development,” the e-rickshaw driver says with the confidence that is mostly found among the new converts. But Kumar, and possibly thousands like him across UP's urban centres who until recently eked out a precarious living, a small shift in their lives is being looked upon by them as nothing short of a miracle. The euphoria is likely to last at least until March 8, when the seven-phased polls in UP conclude.