If the people of Kamthi want schools or jobs, their government has gifted them just the place where they can pray for these.

Some 15km from Nagpur city, off National Highway 44, stands a giant gate welcoming people to the Sri Mahalaxmi Jagdamba Mandir.

A two-lane road off the highway takes you to the temple complex, home to a majestic shrine, lodgings for devotees, a hall, a hospital, a shopping corridor and a parking lot. A wall runs along the length of the 1km road on one side.

Nikesh Nandanwar, a local man, said the temple had been a small shrine till a decade ago, drawing visitors only from the villages of Mahadula and Koradi, each about 2km away.

It then underwent a remarkable refurbishment thanks to Chandrashekhar Bawankule, state BJP president and candidate from the Kamthi Assembly seat.

Bawankule had represented Kamthi for 15 straight years from 2004 before being dropped in 2019, apparently over corruption allegations. But the BJP has brought him back this time, replacing sitting MLA Tekchand Sawarkar.

Bawankule is currently a member of the legislative council. In 2015, when he was Kamthi MLA and “guardian minister” for Nagpur, the state government and the Nagpur Improvement Trust reportedly provided Rs 350 crore to develop the temple complex. Bawankule took over charge as chairman of the temple trust.

The redeveloped shrine now attracts pilgrims from other states. Bawankule’s campaign team is tom-tomming the “development” he has brought to the constituency.

“He (Bawankule) is a powerful leader. He will win,” Nandanwar said. The Congress has fielded Suresh Bhoyar.

According to the temple website, more projects are coming up. These include a dome-shaped theatre, a 151ft idol of Hanuman and a seaplane project that will operate from the nearby Koradi lake.

Mahadula resident Chirkut Wase, 50, said the wall along the road had been built to block out slums from view.

“VIPs visit the temple nowadays. President Droupadi Murmu came in July. The three slums of Phule Nagar, Jai Bhim Nagar and Siddharth Nagar lie on one side of the approach road to the temple. Bawankule built the boundary wall spending crores just to block the view of the poor people and their dwellings. How can you call it development?” Wase said.

Raju Sevatkar, 55, another Mahadula resident and a small-time contractor, said the expansion of the temple complex was good for the pilgrims.

“But it cannot be called development when youths have no jobs and education has become costly because of the dearth of government institutions,” he said.

Sevatkar added: “Going to the temple has become costly too: You have to pay for the puja. To be able to do that, the devotees need to earn. There are no employment opportunities in or around Nagpur.”

Sevatkar said Bawankule had not set up a single government school or college for the residents of Mahadula and Koradi. There are two government schools near the temple but no government college.

“Parents are forced to send their children to private schools and private colleges. If institutions are set up for education and employment, that will be real development,” Sevatkar said.

He showed this correspondent a strip of Glycomet GP2 tablets, a medicine he takes daily to control his blood sugar levels. A strip of 15 tablets used to cost ₹70 in 2020; it now costs ₹170.

“The prices of essentials have skyrocketed. You name anything --- medicine to food --- the prices have more than doubled in five years. The BJP government has done everything it can to empty the pockets of the people,” Sevatkar said.

Apart from a thermal power plant, which was set up in the 1970s and employs about 2,000 people, Koradi offers little by way of job opportunities, he said.

The state government-run Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation has built industrial areas across Maharashtra to promote small-scale industries. But none in Kamthi taluka, Sevatkar said.

“We need industry, which will create jobs. The government is not concerned about employment. It is focused on sprucing up temples to milk sentiments,” Sevatkar said.

Wase said that while the state government was splurging on temple renovation, it had closed down several public-funded schools in and around Nagpur citing a lack of enough students.

“For the BJP government, development begins and ends with temples. While engaging people’s attention on temple projects, it has closed down many schools run by the zilla parishad and the Nagpur municipality,” he said.

Auto-rickshaw driver Pheroze Khan was happy with the temple expansion. “My income has increased; I earn around ₹500 a day now. Earlier I used to earn about ₹200,” Khan said.

Srinivas Khandewale, a retired economics professor who taught at Nagpur University, said true development meant generating economic activities that lead to large-scale employment.

“The temple may generate some income opportunities for the priests, shopkeepers and auto-rickshaw drivers. But it cannot be called development,” Khadewale said.

Ratnadeep Rangari, a resident, said the BJP government was refurbishing temples for the benefit of the big contractors who pay heavy cuts to party leaders.

“The BJP has expanded all the big temple sites in the state, the sole objective being to earn from the ‘commissions’,” Rangari said.

Raghunath Pande, who heads Bawankule’s media team, said Nagpur was “an education and health hub” and was just 10 minutes from Koradi thanks to a new flyover.

“There’s a government ITI in Koradi. There are two private pharmacy colleges too,” he said.

Pande claimed the temple project had helped provide livelihood, directly or indirectly, to about 4 lakh people.

He said two power plants would be set up soon in Koradi and provide jobs to 15,000 people. “An agarbatti factory has been set up and a garment cluster started in Koradi.”

Pande said the Multimodal International Cargo Hub and Airport at Nagpur was expected to generate jobs soon.

“Employment generation is a continuous process: the BJP-Mahayuti government is working in this area,” he said.

Pande added that it was the state electricity board, whose thermal plant is close to the temple, that built the wall along the road. He said Bawankule had nothing to do with it.

Maharashtra votes on November 20