Loknath Mahto is a 3 time MLA, now an Lok Sabha aspirant, and his wife a vegetable vendor

HAZARIBAG: In a constituency with elite candidates like Jayant Sinha of the BJP and Saurav Narayan Singh of the Congress — their declared assets are Rs 55 core and Rs 40 crore — there is a All Jharkhand Students Union Party candidate Loknath Mahto whose wife sells vegetables at the Barkagaon 'haat' or village mart.

Not that Mahto is poor: he has declared assets worth Rs 2 crore. But he has no qualms about admitting that his wife sells vegetables like any other vegetable vendor living below the poverty line. At a time when MPs, MLAs and their families do not hesitate to flaunt their so called "VIP status", Mulani Devi religiously picks up her basket of vegetables plucked from their own farm land and sets out for the market each afternoon after finishing her household chores.

"I have been doing this since long. And just because my husband was an MLA, it does not mean I will give up work which gives me financial independence," she told TOI as she settled down at her designated spot under a neem tree at the Barkagaon daily market.

"On an average, I manage to earn Rs 200 per day, which I spend on my family and also save a little from it," she said with a smile, adjusting potatoes on the manual scale for a customer. Mulani Devi's two sons are self-employed and not interested in cultivating the agricultural land. Though this is being done by farm labourers, Mulani Devi doesn't depend on anybody to sell the potato and cauliflower she grows on her land.

But, like other wives of candidates, doesn't she also dress up and campaign for her husband? Smiling abashedly, the former MLA's wife said she does go around some localities in Barkagaon to ask for votes for her husband during the last leg of campaigning.

"She is a simple village women who looks after the cattle and does other household chores and sells vegetables in the market and has no political ambitions," said her husband, Loknath. "In fact, like any 'grihalakshmi', she also saves for a rainy day and the money comes in handy when I am contesting elections," he said smiling.