Security, connectivity overrides anti-incumbency trend
“Our women can freely take a morning walk alongside the expressway and our cattle are safe because the illegal slaughterhouse in the region has been shut down,” said 70-year-old Ram Pal Tyagi, discussing politics on the polling day in Kharkhauda village of Meerut. This, the farmerturned-small businessman added, had improved the water quality as well.
A tour of six of the eight constituencies in Western Uttar Pradesh that went to the polls on Friday suggested that an improved sense of security provided by the Yogi Adityanath government is an overriding factor in the BJP voter sticking to the sa¨ron party despite complaints of corruption, unemployment, and in©ation. Plus, the Delhi-Meerut Expressway, the NoidaKanpur Expressway, and the Regional Rapid Transit System are giving the villagers a tangible idea of India’s growth story under the BJP rule.
Talking to a cross-section of voters revealed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi continues to get credit for improving India’s global image but many feel that the mangalstura jibe was beneath his stature. “We didn’t expect it from him,” said Naresh Fauji, a former pradhan in Baghpat constituency. “Had Yogiji said something similar, we wouldn’t have minded it but Modiji saying this sent an impression that all is not well in the march to 400.”
On the magic gure, Dhiraj Sharma, a lawyer, said. “See, when you started in the morning, you would be thinking that you would cover the constituency in one hour but it seems it is now taking you much longer. The same is the case with the BJP getting near to the gure of 400.” He said there is discontent but those who make the caste calculations leave out the in-between castes of Kashyaps and the Sainis and the Valmikis among the SCs. They are still strongly behind the BJP and would make the di¨erence wherever there is a close ght.”
Upper caste voters in the region complain of losing out on the farm worker because of free ration but those who are getting it are not complaining.
Ramesh Saini, who runs a small nursery, said Mr. Adityanath has made the candidate redundant. “We know he will get the work done through bureaucracy and police. We can safely move at night. It is not just the Muslim miscreant, he is saving us from the in©uential Hindu castes as well.”
The assimilation of Rashtriya Lok Dal and BJP cadre remained a work in progress. “Our leader (Chaudhary Jayant Singh) has asked us to repay the debt of Bharat Ratna to Chaudhary Charan Singh but his language in the speeches doesn’t suggest that we have to add interest to it as well,” said Manveer Sigh Singh, a Jat farmer in Modinagar of the Baghpat constituency.