With the polling day for the panchayat elections less than a week away, campaigning in Mahodiya village of Madhya Pradesh’s Sehore is in full swing. The village serves as the location for Panchayat, a popular web series on Amazon Prime that captures many aspects of rural politics through the eyes of its city-bred protagonist, the panchayat secretary.
A visit to the village suggests that many electoral issues for the June 25 polls resonate with the broad theme of the show, where it assumes the fictional identity of Phulera in Uttar Pradesh’s Baliya. There are also parallels between specific plot points in the script and the situation on the ground.
The water tank close to the panchayat office, for instance, that the makers of the show cite as a pivotal factor in zeroing in on Mahodiya, is now a key poll plank. Villagers say that it was built close to a decade ago and they are yet to receive water from it.
Water supply, in fact, has emerged as the biggest issue in this campaign with many claiming that they perennially have to cover distances as large as two kilometres on foot to fetch water throughout the harsh summer. “Getting piped water from water tanks has been a long-standing demand. Hand pumps installed by the village administration don’t work as some people illegally dig borewells around them. So we are left high and dry year after year,” says village resident Lalita Bai.
Much like the web series, the culture of Pradhan-Pati — a system where the men of the family, primarily husbands, run the show on behalf of the elected representative — thrives here. In Madhya Pradesh, the corresponding terms are Sarpanch and Sarpanch Pati, as is called Lal Singh, the husband of the outgoing Sarpanch Rajkumari Sisodia.
In a triangular contest this time, the arrangement has become a little more complex with added familial and hierarchical layers thrown in the mix.
Due to the Other Backward Class (OBC) reservation rule, the village will now elect an OBC woman as sarpanch. That rules out Mr. Singh or his wife as they are from a general category caste. He has fielded Reena Bai, whose campaign pamphlet now carries her picture, along with those of her husband and Mr. Singh, his picture being bigger than the actual candidate or her spouse.
In the case of another candidate, Inderbai Rajmal Dhangar, her brother-in-law and family patriarch, Daulat Singh Dhangar, is leading the campaign. Nagina Khatoon, the third in the fray, is represented by her husband Hakim Khan. It is the men in all three cases who interact with the media. Ms. Khatoon, following an “understanding” with Mr. Singh, wanted to withdraw her candidature but missed the deadline. Mr. Khan, however, says he won’t campaign, effectively making the contest bipolar.
It's the water issue that the Dhangars are counting on too. “I have been insisting for long that the water tank should come under the Public Health Engineering Department for proper supply but little has been done in that direction. We will change this if we get elected,” he says.
Apart from water, the other major issue in these elections is upgrading the middle school of the village to a high school. The proximity of the village to the Sehore district headquarters (nearly 10 km away) or State capital Bhopal (at approximately 50 km) means that its residents find more higher education and employment avenues compared to villages in the interior regions of Madhya Pradesh. Posters of private colleges in Sehore are a common sight and a private school is also coming up within the village, which will offer English medium education. Most roads are concretised with “constructed under so and so scheme and from X’s house to Y’s house” painted next to them.
There are a few kachcha houses and they are in the process of getting converted into concretised houses under the Prime Minister’s housing scheme. Kamal Malviya, a Dalit resident, claims the wait is usually longer for Dalit beneficiaries compared to those from other castes and for them this will be an election issue. The OBC caste groups form a majority while there are a sizeable number of Muslims, Dalits and tribals, says Vijay Dhangar, Mr. Dhangar’s grandson.
Residents claim that as shown in Panchayat, local self-governance issues are often settled via outdoor public debates, sometimes heated ones. The day The Hindu visited the village, one such episode played out with a man called Brijesh engaging in a heated argument with the panchayat secretary, Harish Joshi. Mr. Brijesh alleged that he had had to pay a bribe to avail free ration under a government scheme. He later backed out when Mr. Joshi challenged him to reveal the name.
While village elections are not fought on party symbols, political parties backing candidates is an open secret. In Mahodiya, however, both the main candidates (that is, through their male family members) insist that they are close to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Incidentally, the second season of Panchayat was released on May 18, the same day the Supreme Court directed the implementation of OBC reservation in local body elections in Madhya Pradesh, clearing the way for these elections to be conducted after a prolonged delay.
While Abhishek Tripathi, the reel-life panchayat secretary in the OTT (over-the-top streaming platform) show, is gradually easing into his rural life, in real-life, Mr. Joshi has been there for over seven years and is quite content with his life as a panchayat secretary. His advice to himself is also a tip he has for the character: “In Indian villages, everything cannot happen according to the rule book. How well you manage people keeping in mind the unique dynamics of each village, is what ultimately matters.”
