Hothouse Village

Adopted by the prime minister, Jayapur is a showcase of the government’s schemes. But, men want jobs.

- Mathew T. George

The sky is a brilliant blue and the sun merciless as we drive into Jayapur, one of three villages adopted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi un-der the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana. The wheat is in ear here. The mustard crop is a carpet of yellow flowers, and coriander blooms a pale lavender. A nilgai bull bounces out of a thicket and smashes his way through the fields; a farmhand yells and waves his arms. The bull disappears like a puff of smoke. “Pests,” says Rohit Kumar Singh nonchalantly, befitting someone who dreams of being in uniform. The 20-something Rohit has just taken a test for recruitment into the Assam Rifles. But, thanks to his NCC days, his heart is set on the Army.

Earlier in the morning, we had crawled out of Varanasi’s fabled traffic blocks on to NH 19. On the left, we pass Audhe village, where Modi had spoken the previous day. Only a skeleton of the marquee marks where a huge crowd had gathered to cheer him. At Raja Ka Talab, we turn left into Rani Bazaar and get bogged down in a road fit more for off-road rigs. Many a turn later, we end up at Jayapur’s tiny junction, which is blocked with cars and SUVs sporting Samajwadi Party flags. An SP meeting is in progress, and the welcome address is on.

Jayapur falls in the Sevapuri assembly constituency, one of five that together form the Varanasi parliamentary constituency. The seat is represented by Neel Ratan Singh Patel of the Apna Dal (Sonelal), an NDA ally. In 2012, Sevapuri was won by the SP’s Surendra Singh Patel with 31.87 per cent of the votes; Neel Ratan had got 20.71 per cent. In 2017, the tables were turned when Neel Ratan got a decisive 50.08 and Surendra Singh 26.26. The increase in turnout in 2017 was only 2.56 per cent. So, Modi’s attention and the alliance has clearly helped the NDA here.