BJP faced its waterloo at the hands of independent Bindoo Hijda candidate who started his canvassing atleast three months before any of the candidate. Independent candidate Gulshan alias Bindoo was fourth with 22,023 is the main reason for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has lost in Ayodhya Assembly constituency for the first time since the Babri Masjid was demolished on Demcember 6, 1992.
BJP candidate Lallu Singh lost to Samajwadi Party’s Tej Narayan Pandey alias Pawan Pandey in the results declared on Tuesday. Singh had been winning the seat since 1991 state elections. Pandey won Ayodhya by a margin of 5,405 votes. While Pandey got 55,262 votes, Singh came in second with 49,857 votes. Ved Prakash Gupta of the Bahujan Samaj Party secured 33,481 votes to come in third and Independent candidate Gulshan alias Bindoo was fourth with 22,023. Congress’s Rajendra Pratap Singh ended a distant fourth with just 9,710 votes.
In the picture Bindoo is seen campainging for himself/herself.
Ayodhya is one of the five assembly constituencies in Faizabad in Central Uttar Pradesh and had been the laboratory of the BJP.
Story of Bindoo
In the vicinity of the manicured gardens of Faizabad’s Gulab Bari, which houses the tomb of Nawab of Awadh Shuja-Ud-Daula, a small two-storey house, measuring 20 feet by 10 feet, frequently keeps reverberating with a slogan—“Na Muslim,Na Hindu, Abki Gulshan Bindu (Neither a Muslim nor a Hindu, this time Gulshan Bindu”. Bindu is an eunuch and is contesting as an Independent from Ayodhya Assembly constituency.
Heralding a new stage in the much debated politics over Ayodhya by her candidature, Gulshan promises the voters that if elected she won’t allow the house of the UP Assembly to run until a special monetary package is given for the maintenance of heritage buildings that the twin cities—Ayodhya and Faizabad — have inherited as their legacy. “Vidhan sabha ka sadan nahin chalne dungi (I won’t allow the House to run),” she roars before a delegation of local traders,who had come at her election office to tell him about their support to her.
Bindu’s concern for proper preservation of the twin cities’ heritage has much to do with her own position as the present occupier of “Ayodhya throne” in the world of kinnars or eunuchs. “Gaddidhari kinnar hun main (Iaman enthroned kinnar). I have received the twin cities as a legacy from my Guru Gulab Mamu,” Bindu told media.
During her door-to-door campaign in the twin cities, Bindu did not miss to strike an emotional chord with voters by narrating a mythological story about kinnars’ long association with Lord Rama. “I am from Manglamukhi Kinnarwhobeat drums at the time of Lord Rama’s birth,” Bindu says while introducing herself to a motley group of people.
Bindu also remind them about the importance given to kinnars by Lord Ram in the Hindu mythology. “At the time of Bhagwan Ram’s departure to forest, all had gone to see off him near Ayodhya boundary. Addressing them as Nar and Nari (men and women), Ramahad asked them to return to Ayodhya. On his return after 14-year, Rama found that kinnars were still at the same place. They told Bhagwan Rama that he had addressed only nar and nari and so, they stayed there for 14 years,” she narrates the story about kinnars’ association with Ayodhya to the people.
The 45-year-old eunuch is not ready to disclose anything about the beginning of her life as a kinnar. “What I can tell you that I am from Janakpur,” she said. Incidentally, Janakpur was the home of Sita, the wife of Lord Rama. “Madhubani and Jainagar,” she replies when prodded about her birthplace in Bihar. Locals recall that Bindu settled in Ayodhya only about 5 years ago.
Bindu has widely traveled various parts of the country, including Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, and West Bengal and UP. “I can speak 12 languages, including Tamil, Sanskrit, Bhojpuri, Mathili, Telghu and Kannad,” Bindu adds and suddenly starts speaking in Bhojpuri. “Ayodhya receives visitors from across the country. I can talk to them in their language to know their problems, if any, they face in Ayodhya during their visit to offer prayers in different temples of the city,” she added.
There is no dearth of Bindu’s supporters inAyodhya and Faizabad cities. Her supporters have opened election offices in interiors parts of Ayodhya constituency. Some members of her core team have spent their time as workers of different political parties, including the BJP, the SP, the Congress and the BSP. They have currently made Bindu’s election office in Ayodhya as their second home.
Among them is Ram Ganesh Maurya. Maurya, who was associated with BJP right from the days of Ayodhya movement, now handles Bindu’s kitchen. His task is to ensure that no supporters of Bindu leave the office without taking their meal in the morning. “I realised that politicians pollute mind. I don’t find any difference between Mulayam and BJP? Both say that it is court that would decide the issue relating to construction of Ram temple. I was fed up with politics over religion. So, I saw Bindu as best political option in the present situation,” he said.
Unlike Maurya, young Arshad Ali had remained a supporter of SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav in all past elections he witnessed so far. “After seeing the bonhomie between two former chief ministers – BJP’s erstwhile Hindutva face Kalyan Singh and SP chief Mulayam Singh, I thought it is better to join the Bindu camp in this Assembly election,” he cited his reason for supporting Bindu.
Dr Amarjit Maurya of Faizabad, who supported BSP in last elections, said Bindu is one candidate who can’t get vote on the basis of caste. “I think she can take care of all people because of being a kinnar,” Maurya says.
