Mulayam (top), Lalu

Aug. 22: Diwakar Gupta doesn’t. Satyanarayan Singh doesn’t either, even though he owns four petrol pumps.

Both say they don’t earn Rs 30 lakh a year. And if these two among Chapra’s wealthiest businessmen are to be believed, none from their north Bihar constituency of Saran does. Except one man who has moved to a plush bungalow in Delhi and whose voice echoed across the country on Friday, demanding more, more and more.

Their MP Lalu Prasad.

“See, our turnover may be a few crores but we don’t make a profit of Rs 30 lakh. And I’m not talking about individual income; it’s our family business,” said cloth merchant Gupta.

But Friday’s hike in MPs’ salary and perks raises the lawmakers’ yearly earnings, estimated as cost to the nation, to between Rs 30 lakh and Rs 60 lakh if not more. Unlike the incomparably lower incomes of many of their constituents, most of it is tax-free.

Lalu Prasad wants the threefold pay hike revised to a fivefold one, as most other MPs seem to do, and led the charge with Mulayam Singh Yadav during Friday’s televised bedlam in Parliament. So, can Mulayam, at least, expect some sympathy from, say, fellow 30-lakhpatis in his constituency of Mainpuri?

Ram Mohan’s eyebrows puckered in irritation. “I cannot count 10 people in Mainpuri who earn Rs 30 lakh,” said the director of Suditi Global, a private college in Mainpuri, 260km west of Lucknow.

No sympathy votes then for either MP. “We are reeling under the price rise. We don’t have diesel or electricity to irrigate our land. Instead of addressing these issues, Laluji is pushing for a higher salary,” said Nirmal Singh, a farmer at Marhaura.

Mainpuri, which Mulayam has been representing since 1989, is mired in poverty and backwardness. Its potato and garlic farmers are migrating in search of livelihood; when their crops perished on the fields because of a market slump, their MP could do little.

Even his own Samajwadi Party workers are unhappy. “The role Mulayam played in the MPs’ salary hike is not what we expected of him. We wanted him to talk more about the poor,” said Rajesh, Samajwadi secretary in Mainpuri.

A similar view echoed across Saran. “The MPs live in luxurious bungalows. They come to us in choppers and fleets of cars. They spend crores during elections. Where’s the need for them to raise their salary?” said Mahfooz Alam, a grocer.

Sanjay Singh Chouhan, though, wouldn’t blame Lalu Prasad alone. “He is an extremely vocal man, that’s why he stood exposed. But MPs across party lines want the hike,” he said.