Ghisauli village (Jhansi): Uttar Pradesh is the battleground for the Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party. But as parts of the state face an acute drought, is anyone delivering on their promise of development?
With drinking water scarce, livetsock dying and fields dry, do people here have any hope from either party? Or are our netas now playing politics with drought.
The first reported farmer suicide because of drought happened in the Lalitpur district of Bundelkhand where acres after acres of dried up crop became too poisonous even for the cattle.
"There's no water to drink, there's no fodder for the cattle, our crop has completely dried up. What do we do? What choice do we have but to commit suicide?" said Bidua, a farmer.
The main river has been dry for several months and so has the Govind Sagar dam - the lifeline of Lalitpur. Yet, the district has not yet been declared drought-hit.
The Congress says BSP is playing politics simply because the Congress candidate won from this district in the Lok Sabha elections.
"There is budget to build statues but for drought-hit areas where the poor are committing suicide, there is no money to give," said Pradeep Jain, Congress' Lok Sabha MP from Jhansi.
Meanwhile, the Congress has also stepped up its efforts, especially with by-elections for two Assembly seats slated to be held in Bundelkhand in the next few months.
Last year when Rahul Gandhi came and stayed in a house in the Ghisauli village, the Congress strategy for UP became clear -- the party would make a comeback after 20 years and the region of Bundelkhand would mark its emergence.
His tour began from the village, but for the next five days the focus was only on Dalit issues, indicating that the party was trying to win back its traditional vote base.
After all, both the Congress and the BSP are fighting for the 25 per cent Dalit vote of Bundelkhand, almost all of which went towards ensuring a BSP sweep in the 2007 Assembly polls.
"Two years since the UP government was formed and the BSP came to power, the Centre has not given a single rupee for the development of Bundelkhand," said Brijlal Khawri, BSP's Rajya Sabha MP.
But high on politics and low on development - that's how the Dalits see both parties. For them, nothing has changed, be it Rahul Gandhi or Mayawati.
It's a lone fight for them until the next time parties come looking for their support.