Till the other day, she used to be armed with a ‘lathi’ (stick), and was accompanied by a band of pink saree clad women, similarly armed. Men used to dread this leader of the self-styled ‘Gulabi Gang’ as she went on her campaign against alcoholism, gambling and wife-beating. Today, all that has changed. Instead of the threatening stick and the mailed fist, the ‘Gulabi Gang’ chief Sampat Devi Pal (49) goes from house to house with folded hands asking for people’s support.
Her change-over from a social crusader to a polished politician has been swift and complete. For, she is now the official Congress candidate for the Manikpur assembly seat in the middle of the parched and backward Bundelkhand region of southern Uttar Pradesh.
“I have been doing whatever I could with my limited resources. But now I realise that real change can be brought about in people’s lives only with power and authority,” says an apparently wisened Sampat Pal. “Now I want to represent my people in the Vidhan Sabha (legislative assembly) and raise their problems at the right forum,” she asserts. “Water scarcity, hunger and unemployment are the bane of this (Bundelkhand) region, and I want to fight on these issues,” she adds.
With just about six months left before the assembly election, Sampat Pal is on an extensive tour of Manikpur, which also includes dacoit-infested jungle areas. But that does not seem to bother her much. She stays overnight in the village where she finishes her tour, and then starts her onward ‘yatra’ the next morning with her Gulabi Gang “saathins” (companions). “I am not afraid of the dacoit gangs. They know me well and have never challenged me,” she said.
Sources say the local Congress unit is up in arms against her candidature. District Congress chief Nathu Kol doesn’t mince any words as he said:
“We have been working for the Congress for years together. But when it comes to elections, an outsider gets the ticket. This is gross injustice,” he says.
Sampat’s ticket was directly recommended by Rahul Gandhi, sources say. Local Congress leaders now plan to take up the issue with the party leadership.
