Gonda (Uttar Pradesh): From power to penury, Prema Devi has seen it all in her 80 years. The widow of a two-time legislator, considered close to former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, has been forced out of home and into the streets to beg for a living.
Abandoned by her family, the bespectacled, frail Prema Devi was spotted collecting alms outside the District Women's Hospital in Gonda, about 200 km from the state capital Lucknow.
Life, she told the local reporters who spotted her, took a turn for the drastic after her husband Suraj Lal Gupta, who was a Jan Sangh legislator in the 1960s, died in 2007.
"My son does not want to keep any relations with me... He forced me to leave the house," Prema Devi said.
"He (son) changed completely after his father's death in 2007 and told me that I should make my own livelihood arrangements. A few days back, he made me leave the house when I spoke out against the sale of the ancestral house."
Concerned about her future, local journalists have approached the district administration for help.
"We were taken by surprise and shocked to know that the wife of a former MLA now collects alms," Gonda Additional District Magistrate Sukhlal Bharti told IANS.
"We have ordered an inquiry into the incident and will make every possible arrangement to help her."
Chief Development Officer Ramdas added that they would get in touch with the office of Chief Minister Mayawati for assistance.
Suraj Lal Gupta represented the Utraula Vidhan Sabha seat in Balrampur district, 35 km from Gonda town.
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