Battle for UP: Bhojpuri singers at war

BJP MP and actor Ravi Kishan's famous dialogue, "Zindagi jhand ba, phir bhi ghamand ba" (life is terrible, but still, you are arrogant), is now being used to counter his party campaign by another Bhojpuri singer Neha Singh Rathore.

Ravi Kishan, in a rap song released on Saturday, made an attempt to woo voters ahead of the Assembly elections.

In the number, he says: "Yogi ke sarkar ba, vikas ke bahaar ba, sadakan ke jaal ba, kaam bemisal ba, apradhi ke jel ba, bijli relam rel ba, Corona gayil har ba, UP mein sab ba."

Roughly translated, the song says: "This is Yogi's government, there is development, roads, criminals in jail, no Covid, electricity everywhere - UP has everything."

A day later, on Sunday, Bhojpuri singer Neha Singh Rathore released a song titled 'UP Mei Ka Ba' (What is there in UP).

In her rap song, she criticises the Yogi Adityanath government over issues such as handling of the pandemic, Lakhimpur Kheri violence and the Hathras incident.

Responding to Ravi Kishan's praise for the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh, she says in her song: "Corona se lakhan mar gayil le, laashan se Ganga bhar gayil be, kaafan nochat kukur bilar ba, ae baba, UP mein ka ba? (Covid killed lakhs, the Ganga was filled with corpses, dog were snatching shrouds - what is there in UP?)"

Referring to the Lakhimpur incident in which a Minister's son allegedly mowed down four farmers with his SUV, she raps: "Mantri ke betuva badi rangdar ba, kisanan ke chhati pe rondat motor car ba, ae chaukidar, bolo ke zimmedar ba? (The minister's son has an attitude, he runs over farmers in his car. 'Chaukidar', who's responsible for this?"

She ends her song with the famous dialogue Ravi Kishan is known for -- "Zindagi jhand ba, phir bhi ghamand ba".