Amit Shah's Kalavati Bandurkar Jibe At Rahul Gandhi in Lok Sabha | Here's All About Her

Union Home Minister Amit Shah named Kalavati Bandurkar, a farmer’s widow from Vidarbha, in his veiled swipe directed at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

Without mentioning the senior Congress leader, Shah said, “We have a leader in this House, who has been launched in politics 13 times. However, he has failed every time.”

Lashing out the Congress leader, he said, “I have witnessed one of his launches, during which he visited a poor woman from Bundelkhand named Kalavati. But what did you do for her? A house, ration and electricity was provided to her by the Modi government,” he said.

Who is Kalavati Bandurkar?

Here are the top points you need to know:

• Kalavati Bandurkar, a Vidarbha farmer’s widow, emerged as the face of the agrarian crisis when Congress leader Rahul Gandhi visited her home in Yavatmal. This visit occurred a year before the Congress government, led by Manmohan Singh, would face a no-confidence motion in Parliament. Kalavati’s husband, who died by suicide in 2005, was one of the many victims in the region of Maharashtra, known as the ‘suicide belt’ due to its high farmer suicide rates.
• Kalavati, who had seven daughters and two sons, has said she was on the brink of starvation. Speaking at a gathering outside the Pandharkawda tehsil office in Yavatmal, Kalavati had expressed that she could resort to the ‘course her husband took’ if the authorities failed to offer her financial assistance, as per reports.
• During the trust vote in 2008, Rahul Gandhi highlighted Kalavati’s struggle in the midst of the agrarian crisis in his Lok Sabha speech. He laid stress on the country’s requirement for nuclear energy to ensure people like Kalavati have access to electricity
• Following Gandhi’s mention of Kalavati in Parliament, NGO Sulabh International pledged Rs 30 lakh to her bank account.
• In 2016, Kalawati’s son-in-law and the husband of her youngest daughter, Sangeeta, Sanjay Kadaskar, died by suicide after consuming pesticide at his home in Yavatmal district. The 25-year-old auto driver, chose death after his crops in 4.5 acres were severely affected by untimely rains and he couldn’t repay the loan he had taken for his auto-rickshaw. Subsequently, her daughter also took her life.
• Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS), a campaign organisation, wanted her to contest for the Maharashtra Assembly Elections.
• Bindeshwar Pathak, Founder of Sulabh International, advised Kalawati to abstain from politics and engage in social service instead. He warned that her political affiliation could undermine acts of charitable assistance to the needy, causing people to lose faith in such benevolent actions.
• After her falling out with the VJAS, which initially provided assistance after her husband’s suicide, she later said she no longer anticipates their support. Although Kalavati acknowledged her comparatively better situation among Vidarbha’s farm widows, she had told ET that the challenges stemming from drought and inadequate rainfall concern her just as much, if not more, than they do other farmers in the region.
• BJP president Nitin Gadkari in 2011 offered aid of Rs one lakh to her and claimed she got no help from Congress government. The BJP chief criticised the government for “not being serious” about promoting use of ethanol-blended petrol which, he said, could save on petrol consumption.

(With inputs from agencies)