UP polls: Khazanchi, 2, a star in SP’s campaign

Lucknow: A two-month old infant, born in a bank queue in Bilhaur, Kanpur district, is emerging as the focal point of UP CM Akhilesh Yadav’s campaign.

Mr Yadav is citing the case of the baby, named Khazanchi (treasurer) by the bank officials where he was born, to highlight the inhuman aspect of demonetisation and criticise the decision.

“So many people died in bank queues. A child was also delivered in the queue because the mother refused to move out and go to hospital,” Mr Yadav said.

“The bank officials named the boy Khazanchi and I gave his mother Rs 2 lakh. This incident shows that it is only the poor who have suffered by demonetisation,” he said in a rally.

Khazanchi’s mother, Sarvesha Devi, waited for five hours outside the bank in Jhinjhak town when she went into labour and delivered the baby there. Khazanchi is her fifth child, born after the recent death of her husband, a snake charmer. She had queued up in front of the bank to change money so that she could bear the expenses of her own delivery.

Ms Devi said she is grateful to Mr Yadav for giving her money at a time when she needed it the most.

“I don’t understand politics, but I am happy if the CM has been talking about my son,” she said.

Since early Wednesday, reporters have been flocking to the village to take photographs of Khazanchi, who slept through the day on a cot outside his mud house, unaware of the buzz around him.

Ms Devi said she can’t understand the sudden hullabaloo over her son. “I have not spoken to anyone and no one came here earlier. We have done no wrong and I am afraid because of what is happening,” she said.

Arun Kori, a minister in the Uttar Pradesh government and the local candidate, said Khazanchi will remain a part of her campaign. “At least, the chief minister helped the family and the baby is already a star,” Ms Kori said.