Bah in Agra district: Taking the boat to exercise their franchise

In Bah, polling parties still have to take the boat to the twin villages of Kalyanpur and Bhartar, to conduct polls

Published on: Feb 11, 2022, 00:39:35 IST

By Hemendra Chaturvedi, Agra

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The latest equipment may have been introduced for smooth, free and fair polling, but in the Bah assembly constituency of Agra district, polling parties still have to take the boat to the twin villages of Kalyanpur and Bhartar, to conduct polls.

In Bah assembly area of Agra, villagers cross River Yamuna to cast their votes, on Thursday. (HT Photo)

Even villagers, who have moved to other parts of the constituency, take a boat to reach their village to exercise their franchise on polling day, as they did on Thursday.

Bah is in the border area of UP and Madhya Pradesh and the latest developments are yet to touch a part of Bah. Bateshwar, the paternal village of former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee, is located in Bah. It has a dominance of the royal family of Bhadawar and the present MLA is the Rani from the royal family, Pakshalika Singh.

“These two villages were earlier in Shikohabad area and have road connectivity on the other side of river Yamuna. However, they now fall in the Bah assembly constituency and thus polling takes place along with other villages of Bah,” said Amar Chand Sharma, the former MLA of Bah.

“Polling parties reach Kalyanpur and Bhartar on the other side of Yamuna from Bateshwar by boat. The villagers from these villages too have shifted to Bateshwar and other villagers on this side of the river take a boat on polling day to cast their votes in their native villages,” Sharma said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hemendra Chaturvedi
Hemendra Chaturvedi is a senior journalist based at Agra. He covers eight districts of Agra and Aligarh division namely Agra, Mathura, Mainpuri, Firozabad, Aligarh, Etah, Kasganj and Hathras. He had been with HT since 1992 and has completed three decades of association with HT and has worked for Hindustan Times only all through his career of about 35 years. Having Masters in Chemistry, Hemendra is also a law graduate with diploma in Personnel Management and has utilised broad based academic qualifications in his indepth, accurate and high impact stories from this part of western Uttar Pradesh while being based in the city of Taj Mahal. In such long span of career with Hindustan Times, Hemendra Chaturvedi has led his team of reporters which was instrumental in bringing out supplements including Region Scan, Agra Live, HT City time to time and proven his leadership qualities and has made presence of HT felt in the region covered by him. In the process of time, Hemendra has attained expertise in a variety of beats, being sole reporter for HT and has covered Aligarh Muslim University, Taj Mahal centric tourism, religiously sensitive city of Mathura and had been witness to Agra Summit having attendance of top leaders of India and Pakistan.Read More