Bettiah: Amid the election excitement in Bihar, the residents of Baijua village in West Champaran’s Diara region voted not with joy but with determination. For the 4,000 people living here, reaching the polling station involves crossing the Gandak River by boat, slogging through knee-deep mud, and traveling several kilometers by tractor — a journey that takes four hours each way. For them, democracy is a fight for survival. ‘Even in a free country, we suffer slavery,’ said 54-year-old Ramakant Yadav, his voice filled with rage. ‘We cross the river by boat, then by tractor. Roads and electricity remain dreams.
Pregnant women die on the way to hospitals.’ Ramakant’s anguish resonates throughout Baijua, a flood-prone village along the Gandak where each election brings promises of bridges and power lines — yet no real change. With no permanent structures for polling stations, Booths 130 and 131 were established under bamboo and tarpaulin tents. Seven CRPF personnel stood guard as voters lined up under the open sky. Officials acknowledged that the lack of electricity and mobile connectivity in the area made CCTV monitoring unfeasible. ‘It’s a sensitive region. Our focus is on ensuring the polling occurs peacefully,’ one official mentioned off-camera.
Some political workers were observed distributing food to voters — a blatant breach of election regulations — yet the administration appeared more concerned with logistics than enforcement. The journey to the last village in Bihar took hours. Around 10 a.m., a patrolling team passed by — on a tractor. ‘It takes four hours to reach the booth,’ a constable remarked. ‘Rain alters routes. Sometimes the mud remains for months.’ Female constable Ananya Kumari smiled through her exhaustion: ‘Doing duty here is the hardest. No roads, no shelter, just endless mud.’ Her colleague Shabana Turi added, ‘We patrol five booths by tractor. It’s slow, but peaceful.’ Nearby, voters traveled to the booths similarly.
‘We walk nine kilometers to vote,’ stated Kalavati Devi, holding her ID. ‘There’s no electricity, no road, but we will still vote.’ Another villager, Binda Devi, expressed her frustration, ‘They gave us gas, but we still cook with wood. Hospitals are 10 km away, and no one comes after elections.’ At Booth 131, Subhash Yadav pointed at the EVM placed under a tent. ‘See, even the machine is exposed. Everything here is—our lives, our suffering.’ Villagers cooked near the booth on wood stoves. Umesh Ram, another voter, said, ‘We have no electricity poles, no rations, and no roads. We light fires at night.’ Due to the lack of proper roads, police patrols also utilized horses to access booths.
‘It’s impossible to walk in this terrain,’ one jawan noted, ‘sometimes we even give voters a ride to the booths.’ Locals like Vicky Kushwaha sell petrol from plastic bottles. ‘The water washes everything away,’ he said. ‘We bring fuel from the market and sell it here. It’s risky, but necessary. Until a bridge is built, we have no choice.’ By 11 a.m., equipment for election monitoring had still not arrived. A technician admitted, ‘We were delayed by rain and lost our way at night.’ The BJP MLA who has represented the area for the last decade has not provided even basic facilities.
‘Politicians win with our votes but don’t even send a boat for our children,’ women shared with this reporter. Many families depend on solar panels bought with their daily wages after government schemes failed. ‘I bought this solar plate after working as a laborer,’ said Shravan Yadav. ‘We light lamps with it at night. We don’t get rations, but we still vote.’ In this isolated part of Bihar, voting is not a celebratory right but a test of endurance. The residents are familiar with the promises — bridges, schools, roads, power — yet they continue to show up, year after year.
As the sun set over the Gandak, casting a golden hue on the muddy waters, Shravan Yadav smiled outside his hut. ‘There’s a lot of hardship,’ he said quietly, ‘but we’ll vote every time. Maybe someday the government will remember us.’ For the people of Baijua, democracy signifies not comfort but courage.
