In BJP Bastion Beed, Voters Ask When Promised Rail Line Will Come

Video Editor: Mohd Irshad
Reporter: Rounak Kukde

The Quint’s senior reporter Rounak Kukde travelled to Beed, Maharashtra before the second phase of the general election 2019.

Beed has been a stronghold of the BJP. The constituency is under BJP minister Pritam Munde. In the 2014 election, the BJP promised its people that an Ahmednagar-Beed-Parli railway line would be completed before the 2019 election.

But when Rounak came to Beed, he realised that only 35 kms of work has been done over the past five years from Ahmednagar to Solapurwadi station. The entire stretch is around 245 kms and more than 200 kms of work is still left.

With elections around the corner, the people of Beed would like to ask the BJP, Kya Hua Tera Vaada?

“In 2014, the BJP government guaranteed that a railway line would be built in Beed. But till now, there has been no railway or railway line. We don’t even know if it will ever happen in the future. The work is happening at such a slow pace. It’s so slow that generations have come and gone but there is no railway line.”

Manik Khande, Social Worker

Manik Khande was not the only one, Sayeed Bashir, a shopkeeper shared a similar feeling. “Since childhood, I’ve been hearing that a railway line would come. But till now, it’s just a dream. You can only see the tracks being built – 2 kms, 5 kms. But when will the whole thing be made? We have no idea. We are angry.”

The stalled railway lines are affecting business. Bashir adds, “I’m a well-qualified man. If I have to travel to Mumbai or Delhi, I end up wasting a lot of time commuting. With railways coming here, that time will be reduced and so will the cost. More importantly, businesses will flourish. Businessmen will be able to commute easily.”

But till now, railway line seems like a dream for Beed’s citizens. But once it does get laid, Sayeed knowns what he will do. “As soon as this turns into reality, we will distribute peda. This is just a dream right now. In real life, only when the railway starts running will we say ‘Yes, this promise was fulfilled.’”