Local residents of Uttar Pradesh's Mau town have demanded more jobs for youth and better connectivity for saree weavers to boost business in the state.
Vinay Singh, a social activist in Mau, seeks better connectivity to boost the weaver business.
"When the election comes, then polarisation takes place. There are many centres for saree weavers in the district and businesses go to many major cities. The scope of the business has come down in Mau after riots took place long back. We want train connectivity through Mau so that it will bring business and prosperity to the town," Singh said.
Talking about the major issues of the town, Bablu Kumar, another local resident said, "Youth is facing huge unemployment and adding to the trouble is inflation which are the core issues dominating this election for us."
On the other hand, small scale businessman, Shahid is content with the progress made during CM Yogi Adityanath's tenure and said, "We want progress and jobs in Uttar Pradesh. Yogi government has fared well. We got education and jobs-- what else could we ask for?"
However, a young medical representative working in Mau, Akhil Pratap Chouhan thinks that Samajwadi party tenure is beneficial for the town.
"SP government was the best as job vacancies used to come regularly but at present, government jobs have been privatised. Yogi government has not performed well-- only polarisation is going on. They use sympathy votes to win. We will favour the SP government where jobs were given based on merit," he added.
Mau district is known for its textile product and apparel manufacturing industries.
The business community is yet to get stable after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Deepak, who owns a saree business outlet said, "For past few years everything crumbled but after riots, the scope of business started to decline. Most of the businessmen are scared of their future. After COVID, the business was adversely affected."
In Mau, imprisoned don-politician, Mukhtar Ansari son's Abbas Ansari is fielded in the election by the Samajwadi Party's ally Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) as the coalition nominee in the seat.
BJP has nominated Ashok Singh from the seat, while the Bahujan Samaj Party has fielded its state president Bhim Rajbhar and the Congress has given ticket to Madhavendra Bahadur Singh.
Mau will go to the polls in the seventh phase of UP Assembly elections on February 7. The counting of votes will take place on March 10.
( With inputs from ANI )
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor