The week before the fourth phase of the UP elections, and polling day in Bundelkhand, to understand which way the wind may be blowing, Khabar Lahariya’s editor and chief reporter did a walk through of two villages we have known intimately over the years, and this year in particular. Rampur Mafi, a dacoit-scarred village in Manikpur block of Chitrakoot, where the groundwater levels have consistently fallen over the last few years, meaning water is a particularly scarce commodity. Gopra in Naraini block of Banda, where we discovered a massive, and undocumented, spread of tuberculosis last year. What were voters in these villages, abandoned by any administration or government machinery, thinking as they went to vote? Did the loudest issues in their lives make it to the ears of any candidates they met? Listen in…
