BIHAR- Election in Gyaspur

BIHAR Election in Gyaspur Arun Sinha AFTER a quarter less than two hours' journey in two stages on racing auto- rickshaws when you come from Patna to the small bazaar at Maner, Gyaspur to the left is another forty-five minutes' walk. The twisting road to Gyaspur, originally six feet wide and asphalted, has shrunk to a strip along the middle, its sides cratcred with holes, the earth at the edges overreaching its sub-layers. But unlike the highway to Maner the road to Gyaspur is spared the overhead burden of cheap- cloth 'Vote X' banners stringed to tree branches on either side. On December 23 on the walls of occasional houses on the way one had difficulty finding a sign of election the following day. It was mid-day; many were out tending their jobs; a peasant arranging the ridges for his vegetable plants, a woman washing her cooking utensils at a well by the side of the house, a carpenter chiselling the edge of a plough beside the road.