Kanchanpur Voters Express Deep Apathy Amidst Intense Election Campaigning

Kanchanpur. The campaigning for the upcoming House of Representatives election is intense. Candidates are striving to win the trust of voters by carrying their respective agendas.

During our on-the-ground reporting, we met some voters who have no interest in politics, nor do they trust any of the candidates' commitments.

These voters, having cast their ballots in 5-7 previous elections, state that the promises made by leaders during election time are like 'dreams seen in sleep' for their lives. Their experience is that leaders forget the justifications for their pre-election promises immediately after the election concludes.

For these voters, who struggle daily to secure two meals, grand development projects, federalism, and inclusive systems have failed to attract them. They harbor extreme disillusionment with politics.

Ganesh Lohar of Bedkot Municipality-5 and Parbatidevi Rosyara of the same municipality-3 are representative voters who are more concerned with how to manage two meals a day than whom to vote for in the upcoming election.

Ganesh Lohar is a blacksmith by profession. Suffering from recurrent stomach pain, he says he does not even have money for medical treatment.

"First, I don't get as much work as before. People have stopped farming. The tradition of making hoes, spades, and sickles is disappearing," he said. "Some days, I don't even need to light the fire in the forge. There is no work. The worry of what to eat when there is no work plagues me."

He does not own any land for cultivation. He mentioned that due to his illness, he is unable to do other work. "I have an elderly mother at home," he said. "I could perhaps manage to go hungry for a day or two, but I cannot let my mother starve." Ganesh explains that when there is no grain at home, they subsist on 'khola' (thin gruel).

While reporting on the ground in Bedkot-5, Ganesh was cooking 'khola' outside his house by the roadside. "Who are you cooking this for?" we asked him.

Ganesh loudly explained our presence to his mother, and the elderly woman said, "I thought you had come asking for votes, so I was going to keep you for a while and feed you this 'khola', but you turned out to be guests from outside!"

In response, he said, "Who else would it be for, sir! It is for myself."

Ganesh's mother was sitting next to him. Perhaps because she saw strangers, she asked Ganesh, "Have they come asking for votes or what?"

We had already introduced ourselves to Ganesh, but due to her hearing impairment, she had not been able to hear our introduction.

Ganesh loudly explained our presence to his mother, and the elderly woman said, "I thought you had come asking for votes, so I was going to keep you for a while and feed you this 'khola', but you turned out to be guests from outside!"

Ganesh's family needs easy medical treatment when sick and a situation where they can easily earn their livelihood through hard work, rather than large national development projects, smooth roads, or irrigation facilities. Ganesh, who says he voted in past elections with expectations of development and an easy life, has no motivation to vote in the current election. "How many times have I voted before, nothing happened," he said. "What will happen if I vote now?"

Parbatidevi Rosyara was displaced during the expansion of the Shuklaphanta Wildlife Reserve. She has neither land for cultivation nor any reliable source of income.

She spends the night in a hut covered with plastic after working as a daily wage laborer. During the day, she wanders around looking for manual labor.

On days she finds work, she buys a small amount of rice, some vegetables, and other necessities with her wages. On days she doesn't find work, she is also forced to subsist on 'khola'.

"We have neither a house nor land," she said. She explained that she used to sustain herself by farming on some public land she previously possessed.

She said that her difficult days began after being displaced from her home and land during the reserve expansion.

She said, "Now we are squatters, we have no house or land." She mentioned that in many previous elections, candidates came to them and promised to arrange for their settlement.

"No one from the old parties has come to ask for our votes now," Parbati said. "With what face would they come to ask for votes? They asked for votes before, promising to arrange our settlement, and we voted believing them. This is our situation even now."

Parbati concludes that political parties have kept their struggle-filled lives as a source of votes. She is not confident that the upcoming election will solve their problems. "How many such elections have come and gone, and our situation has not improved. What will happen now?" she said.

(After returning from Kanchanpur)