Uttar Pradesh Elections 2022: The many moods, colours and voices behind the votes

Unfazed by the crowding around her, Kanta Kirshanpal, a school teacher, helps the locals confirm their names on the electoral lists on the morning of the voting day in Baraut in Uttar Pradesh. Baraut, February 10, 2022

Shamim Hanif from a mohalla in Khail exercises her vote at the polling booth in Shamli. Articulate when asked if she exercised the choice of wearing a burqa, she asks, “What you don’t see doesn’t confuse you, does it?” Shamli, Uttar Pradesh, February 10, 2022

A polling official helps Rajni sign up before she casts her vote at the Mahawatpur booth in Baoli. Refusing to give her surname, Rajni said she was in a hurry because her ageing mother, who had left home with her, had turned back midway seeing no reason to go on to the voting booth. Baoli, Baghpat, February 10, 2022

A vast swathe of people cover the Sikar mela ground on the outskirts of Unnao, dwarfing the faraway stage where Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks. At many electronic screens, the villagers strain against the afternoon sun to glimpse the Prime Minister, and clap when he thunders, “Earlier, you had to know English to study medicine or engineering…”. Chandankheda, Unnao, February 22, 2022

On the outskirts of Shamli, on agricultural land they have leased, Baburam and his brother Tejpal, make jaggery with the help of their sons. Baburam, who was working as a labourer in New Delhi, came back home when money and ration ran out during the Covid-19 induced lockdown. The fear of isolation he felt in those days hasn’t left him, he says. Lilon, Shamli, February 10, 2022

Anil Kumar lounges on his cot in Jat-dominated Taharpur Bhabisa, in the midst of a harvesting season in the country’s biggest sugarcane growing state. He denies reports that farmer arrears were one of the lowest in the last year, and resents the expensive electricity he has to use for irrigation. It must be free, says the Jat from a well-to-do family in the village. Shamli, February 10, 2022

Farm labourers from Loharipur, some among them Dalit, leap over a divide on the highway on their way to their homes. They are unanimous in their choice of the vote and the reason behind it: BJP has promised Ujjwala scheme beneficiaries two free gas cylinders. Baghpat, February 10, 2022

Vehicles on the road to Gorakhpur often veer off onto mud embankments as the work on the Varanasi-Gorakhpur highway along Ami river gets underway at Ojhauli, Gorakhpur, February 12, 2022

Deepak Rajbhar, a Class 10 student in Shivale, joins his neighbours as they dig for leftover bits of metal bars from a highway construction site that was previously used for casting concrete slabs.  Rajbhar, like the others, hopes to sell them for some money till the day he can fulfil his dream of joining the Indian Army. Many in his village couldn’t because the middlemen were asking for Rs 7 lakh. Shivale, Jaunpur, February 12, 2022

Students stream out after a Maths class at Chetana Plus Coaching Centre in Dobhi, Jaunpur. Prince Maurya and Himanshu Singh (third and fourth from left) from SGS Inter College are aiming for NEET and joining the civil services. Dobhi, Jaunpur, February 12, 2022

Aloft the rooftop of a modified bus, Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav rallies his supporters, mostly youth, at Alambagh as the bus winds through the traffic in Lucknow. Behind him, the concrete pillars of the metro rail project span out, one of his marked achievements in his years as the chief minister. Lucknow, February 20, 2022

Ask the shopkeepers and residents of the sliced-off buildings in Rani Ki Sarai, a main thoroughfare in Azamgarh, and they puzzle over why theirs were razed overnight when the new expressway actually passes parallel, just metres away from here. Then someone ventures, "this was Samajwadi Party’s stronghold...”. Azamgarh, February 12, 2022

On a blazing afternoon, Bahujan Samaj Party’s supporters mull listlessly around their candidate Sushil Kumar Sinha. A party that was formed to represent Bahujans (referring to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes), BSP and its leader Mayawati finds itself with a marginal voice in the current political churn. Azamgarh, February 12, 2022

A devotee pays obeisance to a gallery of deified yogis of India at the Gorakhnath Math, founded by Gorakshanath (Circa early 11th century). The current chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, who is seeking re-election, is of the monastic order of Nath tradition, that follows no caste conventions. Gorakhpur, February 12, 2022

A large hoarding of the Bharatiya Janata Party featuring the Modi-Yogi combine flanks the cantonment roundabout in Varanasi. ​At the famed chai addas in the bylanes of the ghats, the admiration for Modi-Yogi always draws upon mythology of the relationship between Krishna and Arjuna in the Mahabharata.

Varanasi. February 12, 2022​

In Mahawatpur, Baoli, 19-year-old Fareen Malik walks back home with her mother and her aunts after voting for the first time. "Everyone in this village votes for RLD candidate Jayant Chaudhury, irrespective of their castes and religion, because he listens to our voices," she says—a chorus echoed by everyone around. Baoli, Baghpat, February 10, 2022

"My wife gets squeamish but getting a massage on the ghats is an ancient brahmin tradition," Abhishek Dwivedi shouts over the din of the ghats. Dwivedi is a sales manager for a shoe company that takes him back and forth between Varanasi and Allahabad. "To a brahmin, it doesn’t matter who wins or loses the election. All that matters is that we are behind the scenes. And we always are.” Dr. Rajendra Prasad Ghat, Varanasi, February 13, 2022

A persistent, pressing problem in village after village is the issue of stray cattle, ambling about in plain sight, and whose numbers have been rising since the BJP government put curbs on slaughter. Mohammadpur Kuchariya, Rae Bareli, February 20, 2022

Anand Jatav erects a string-lined fence around his little patch of land to keep out the cattle, a day after they ate into a part of his field. A dalit by caste, Anand is mulling over selling this land after prices went up since an expressway was built nearby. "Otherwise I’ll just volunteer to run a gaushala (cow shelter)," he quips. Ramala, Baghpat, February 10, 2022

BJP workers conduct a door-to-door campaign to canvas for votes in the narrow residential alleys adjoining Dasaswamedh Ghat, Varanasi. The workers constantly pose with each householder, and exhort their team to shoot videos to post on social media later. Varanasi, February 13, 2022

82-year-old Jatamba Devi is handed a pamphlet by the BJP workers during a door-to-door campaign. She’s not sure if she’ll be up to stepping out on voting day, but she says "Modi ka hawa hai". Varanasi, February 13, 2022

Much has been written about BJP’s Rs 800-crore Kashi Vishwanath temple project in Varanasi to revamp the holiest Hindu shrine. It sought to decongest (by moving habitats), spruce up and connect the temple corridor to the ghats of the Ganga. However, the new bare-faced architecture  evokes instant comparisons with the ‘sarkari’ buildings in New Delhi’s Central Vista. Varanasi, February 13, 2022

Sri Mohan Giri, the sadhu in charge of Sri Shambhu Panchdashnam Aavahan Akhada at Dasaswamedh Ghat mulls over the question put to him: 'Is this transformed Kashi Temple the new seat of governance?' To which he answers, "They have their government. We have ours". Dasaswamedh Ghat, Varanasi, February 13, 2022

On a cold foggy morning at the Bhurekhan’s Mazaar, Savinder Kumar and Mohammad Yunus speak of Mahwatpur, their village of mixed castes and religions. "We all eat out of the same plate. It’s the outsiders who create rifts." Baoli, Baghpat, February 10, 2022

Rajesh Kumar Sharma isn’t a Banarasi babu—he moved here from Chandoli, Nathupur, 12 years ago. But he has a prime spot for his barbershop. "Everyone admires Modiji, but I don’t go by parties," he says. "I am looking at the local candidates and it is SP for me." Dr. Rajendra Prasad Ghat, Varanasi, February 13, 2022

Priyanka Gandhi was late to arrive at her home turf, but the crowd, majority of them women, waited patiently at a stage set in front of a large courtyard flanked by a State Bank of India branch. Gandhi tears into the ruling party’s divisive politics and later, can’t help but beckon a child from the arms of a woman in the audience. Jagatpur, Rae Bareli, February 20, 2022

Cholapur-based brothers Arif and Ashik Ansari are master weavers of the exquisite dhakai jamdani that involves months of intricate work on a loom—a learning that goes back generations in the family. What do they make of this vociferous assertion of religious identity in election these days? "There are the visible threads that bind us. These are in the lower realms, like this world itself. Then there are the invisible threads that bind us. How can we speak of them in this world?” Sholapur, Varanasi, February 11, 2022