UP has a water crisis but why are voters indifferent to it?

As parties promise to clean up the Ganga and Yamuna, why is clean water not an electoral issue?

“Yes, Ganga and Yamuna have turned into drains. But no candidate is talking about this, nor is any voter asking,” says Abhishek Srivastava, as he buys a wallet in Agra’s Sadar Bazar. “Why not?” “I don’t know. Voters only echo the points raised by candidates during the campaign.”

Over 140 million people are eligible to vote as Uttar Pradesh — the land of the Ganga and the Yamuna — gets set to elect a new state government. The ongoing campaign is characterised by bitterness, sarcasm and extravagant promises of laptops to each student. Opinion polls show a tight race between