Caste fault lines re-emerge in Muza arnagar
The sugarcane belt has become a more level playing eld for caste-centric parties, with the BJP-RLD alliance taking the sting out of anti-Muslim rhetoric; meanwhile, the Muslims, who constitute the largest chunk of the electorate, are disillusioned that n
he changing colours of symbols and ag positions during an election tell a story. At the Rashtriya Lok Dal head oce near the bustling Mahavir Chowk in Muzaarnagar, the party’s green and white ag is ying above the Bharatiya Janata Party’s ag. At the recent road show of RLD chief Chaudhary Jayant Singh and the BJP candidate Sanjeev Balyan, the saron party’s lotus symbol took on the unusual shades of green and white.
It appears that the BJP is allowing its small but inuential partner to take the lead in this critical constituency in western Uttar Pradesh that it won by a whisker in 2019, when Mr. Balyan defeated Mr. Singh’s father and the RLD’s then-supremo Ajit Singh, who was then a joint candidate of the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party, by only 6,500 votes.
Ajit Singh, who worked for Hindu-Muslim unity after the Muzaarnagar riots of 2013, died of COVID in
TMay 2021. This time round, his son is not just seeking support for Mr. Balyan, who emerged as a Hindutva leader after the riots, against the Samajwadi Party’s senior Jat leader Harinder Malik; he is also making it a prestige issue, as a sort of return gift for the BJP’s decision to bestow the Bharat Ratna on his grandfather and former Prime Minister Charan Singh.
To the BJP cadre’s displeasure, however, Mr. Singh is not changing his ideological stance. Metaphorically, they see him as a vegetarian who has walked into a non-vegetarian section and is not only refusing to change his habits, but is also making a grand show of it. That may be why he got delayed and missed the PM’s Saharanpur rally. He took along hundreds of tractors for a show of strength with Mr. Balyan and then wished the crowds, ‘Id Mubarak’, making appeals for social amity. This is a playbook that the BJP worker has not been accustomed to since 2013.
Electorally, this hub of sugarcane farmers has not proved sweet for his family. Apart from Ajit Singh’s loss last year, in 1971, Charan Singh, by then a former Chief Minister of U.P., was humbled at the hustings in Muzaarnagar by a Communist Party of India candidate with the support of the Congress.
MBCs irked
Across the street, Moolchand Kashyap is waiting for Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati to address a rally for party candidate Dara Singh Prajapati, who heads the Prajapati Mahasabha, a national social organisation for the most backward classes (MBCs).
“In 2019, Ajit Singh was seen as the Jat face. This time, it is Balyan who is being seen as one,” the 74year-old said.
Pointing to the BSP stole around his neck, the retired ocial of a government insurance company said that this was the rst time that he had worn it. “Because Behenji has given political representation to one amongst us in the area, we have realised what the BJP has been promising us is not true,” Mr. Kashyap said, referring to the BJP’s unfullled promise of moving 17 MBC communities to the Scheduled Caste category. “Mayawati won’t give it either but she is at least giving us political representation. After Muslims, our number [MBCs] is the highest in the constituency.”
A section of the community is irked by Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s description of the region as Jatland, during his rally in Shahpur. The sobriquet has pricked MBC youth who have been supporting the BJP on its Hindutva plank in order to take on the inuence of erstwhile landlords which, according to them, has swelled disproportionately with the RLD and BJP joining hands. The SP’s Mr. Malik, who was outside the political reckoning for a long time, is hoping to reap this discontent among the BJP’s core voters. In his speeches, he is sidestepping emotional issues and is asking the party’s State leadership to stay away to help him keep the election local.
Outside the BJP oce, young Ankit Chaudhary, a BJP voter, had a piece of advice for the RLD chief: “If you enter a non vegetarian buet, there is no point claiming that you are a vegetarian. People won’t believe.” What he meant was that Mr. Singh should shun the secular image and wrap himself in the Hindutva cloak.
In the race to cross the 400-seat mark, the BJP cadre seems to be missing the communal narrative that drove the central leadership’s ambition.
Chief Minister Yogi Aditynath is doing his bit. He is carefully sprinkling Urdu words like nizam and janaza in his chaste Hindi while praising the role of the double-engine government in eliminating the maa of a particular hue.
This election, local poll pundits say, is playing out as a localised contest between Mr. Balyan and Mr. Malik, despite the BJP’s top leadership holding four rallies in their candidate’s support. Seasoned local journalist Rashid Ali says that Mr. Balyan is on a sticky wicket as caste fault lines have re-emerged after a decade of communal polarisation in Muzaarnagar.
The Muslims, who constitute the largest chunk of the electorate, are disillusioned that no party has shown faith in them. “Jats constitute only 1.5 lakh but they have two candidates. We are 5.5 lakhs but we are being told that we will polarise,” lamented Mohammad Ayub, a former pradhan in the Charthawal area who hails from the ironsmith community among Muslims.