Oppn plans joint candidate against BJP in Kairana bypoll

Everyone is in touch with everyone else. Rahul Gandhi and Jayant Chaudhary, Jayant and Akhilesh, Akhilesh and Mayawati, and even Jayant and Mayawati have met. There is a recognition that we must come together in some form to defeat BJP. RLD FUNCTIONARY

NEWDELHI: Opposition parties are discussing the possibility of fielding a joint candidate against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the May 28 by-election to the Kairana Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh, three leaders familiar with the matter said.

While there has been engagement at multiple levels between the Congress, the Samajwadi Party (SP), the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), it is BSP chief Mayawati who holds the key to such a unity and determining the candidate, the leaders said.

Negotiations between different forces centre on two issues — can all four non-bjp parties come together, and who would be the candidate — said an RLD interlocutor familiar with the political dialogue underway.

“We have learnt from Gorakhpur and Phulpur. We need to stay together if we want to defeat the BJP,” said a SP leader, recalling the SP-BSP alliance that defeated BJP in the recent bypolls. But the west UP political theatre has an additional player — Ajit SinghJayant Choudhary-led Jat-dominated RLD.

“Everyone is in touch with everyone else. Rahul Gandhi and Jayant Chaudhary, Jayant and Akhilesh, Akhilesh and Mayawati, and even Jayant and Mayawati have met. There is a recognition that we must come together in some form to defeat the BJP,” said the RLD function- ary quoted above.

There are over five lakh Muslims in the constituency, close to two lakh Dalits and Jats, a substantial section of Gujjars, and then other upper castes and OBC communities. The BJP candidate is likely to be Mriganka Singh, daughter of the late MP Hukum Singh, whose death necessitated the bypolls. She happens to be from the Gujjar community.

The RLD sees itself as a natural claimant in west UP and Choudhary himself is open to being the candidate, provided he is backed by the Congress, SP, and BSP. The SP, however, does not want to let go of the opportunity either, and wants to build on the success in recent bypolls.

“We are looking ahead to 2019, and of course, we believe SP should get the seat,” said a key party leader. The name of Lucknow University professor Sudhir Panwar, a Jat who con- tested on an SP ticket in the last assembly poll, is doing the rounds. The Congress is open to supporting a unified opposition candidate.

However, the key will be in the hands of Mayawati. The BSP was inclined to contest from Kairana, after its unity with the Samajwadi Party ensured BJP’S defeat in Gorakhpur and Phulpur earlier this year. But Mayawati decided to stick with her self-imposed rule of not contesting a by-election. She remains the swing force though. “The BSP is inclined to support a Samajwadi Party candidate,” a BSP leader said. “Given its history of supporting the BJP, the RLD cannot be trusted.”

But an RLD leader said Mayawati and Choudhary have met too. When asked if they would contest separately if BSP backed SP, the RLD leader said, “I doubt it. The aim is to defeat BJP. We will stick to the opposition alliance.”

The BJP won the Kairana seat in 2014 with a margin of 2.36 lakh vote. Hukum Singh polled 5.65 lakh votes, compared to Samajwadi Party’s tally of 3.29 lakh and BSP’S 1.60 lakh votes.

While the BJP candidate was a Gujjar, the SP and the BSP fielded Muslim candidates in a communally charged contest.

The BJP retained its hold over five assembly segments — Nakur, Gangoh, Kairana, Thana Bhawanandshamli — of Kairana Lok Sabha seat in the 2017 assembly election, but the BSP improved its tally.