VARANASI: If Prime Minister Narendra Modi decides to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections again from his parliamentary constituency Varanasi, apart from the opposition he will also have to face challenge from a ‘living dead’. And PM Modi is not alone, a similar test awaits Congress president Rahul Gandhi, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and BSP supremo Mayawati.Mritak Sangh, an association of living people declared dead in revenue records either fraudulently or by mistake, has decided to field candidates against Modi and other top political leaders like Rahul, Akhilesh and Mayawati.“We will field our members against these leaders to highlight the plight of the ‘living dead’ people,” Mritak Sangh president Lal Bihari ‘Mritak’ told reporters at the Rajghat cremation ground in Azamgarh on Friday.“ Election mein hum keval ‘murdey’ khade karte hain (We field only dead people in elections). This is the best way for a ‘living dead’ to show that he is alive,” he said.“It is unfortunate that the living dead, whose names were struck from all records after they were declared dead in their village register, have to run from pillar to post to get their names re-registered in records,” he said.“Although after an Allahabad high court order in 2000, thousands of such people were declared alive in government records, they are yet to get possession of their properties. All major political parties, including BJP, have ignored these unfortunate people who have been struggling for decades to get justice,” he said.“Mritak Sangh has so far facilitated ‘rebirth’ (re-registration of their name in revenue records) of more than a thousand people,” claimed Lal Bihari, a native of Amilo village of Azamgarh district.In July 1977, Lal Bihari (64) had been declared dead by his relatives who got his name removed from revenue records to usurp his property.He filed nomination for Lok Sabha byelection in 1988 and contested from Allahabad against VP Singh, Kanshi Ram and Sunil Shastri to prove that he is alive. He also contested from Amethi in 1989 against Rajiv Gandhi and Rajmohan Gandhi and since then he has contested six more elections — from assembly to local bodies — till he was finally declared alive on June 30, 1994.After being declared alive in 1994, he filed a Rs 25 crore compensation suit against UP government for being declared dead for 17 years. His work got him the Ig Nobel from Harvard in 2003. But as he could not travel to Harvard at that time, he was formally honoured in February 2014 at BITS Pilani at the conclave of Ig Nobel winners. Ig Nobel is a parody of the Nobel Prize awarded to celebrate ten unusual achievements.Bihari now claims that he has devoted himself to the cause of living dead and has fielded many candidates in past elections.“Though the nomination papers of the living dead are rejected every time, we continue to take part in the electoral process just to raise the issue of such people,” he said.

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