Descendants of Chandra Shekhar Azad, Tatya Tope in poll fray too

LUCKNOW: Call it an effort to resurrect the faded memories of two Independence heroes, if you will. Lucknow-based Swarajya Party of India has declared descendants of freedom fighter Chandra Shekhar Azad and 1857 revolt hero Tatya Tope as its candidates for the LS polls.

While Vinayak Rao Tope, a third generation descendant of Tatya Tope is going to contest from Kanpur against sitting MP and Union coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal and BJP stalwart Murli Manohar Joshi, Rajeev Mishra, fourth generation descendant of Chandra Shekhar Azad will contest from Unnao against sitting MP Anu Tandon.

Speaking to TOI from Unnao's Badarka village, the birthplace of Chandra Shekhar Azad, Rajeev Mishra said, "So far political parties have used us for their vested interests and have done hardly anything to ameliorate the people's plight. But, when it comes to help us, they conveniently shift the onus on others. Badarka lacks an inter college for girls. As a result, they are forced to travel to far-off places for higher education. Apart from this, the place also lacks a primary health centre and a host of basic amenities including roads."

Vinayak Tope (59), resident of Bithoor, 25 km from Kanpur, said, "Health, education and rail connectivity of Bithoor need immediate attention of the authorities. We need to restore the pristine glory of Bithoor, which has a special spot in Hindu mythology." Anupam Mishra, president of SPI, said instead of hanging on to the usual caste equations, the party thought of fielding family members of revolutionaries, who would bring about a quiet but a paradigm shift in society.

On the question of winnability, which, on the face of it, is apparently missing in the two candidates, Mishra said "I know their chances of winning are poor. But, even in their defeat we would be scoring a victory in terms of changing the mindset of voters, who know little about the glorious tales of these revolutionaries."