‘Brush Nagari’

were Muslims and another 9 per cent Dalits.

“Notebandi has hit us badly. Sixty per cent of our units have shut, as there’s no cash to pay workers,” says Mohammad Ajmal,ownerofoskarbrushproducts.“the smallhome-basedunits,eachengaging1025 labourers, have stopped working. Even the bigger ones — the 25 or so having 100150 workers each — are running for eight hours, as against 12 before November 8 (whentheoldrs500andrs1,000denomination notes were banned),” says Satish Kumar, a local brushware trader.

Two things strike any first-time visitor to Sherkot. The first is the streetlight polesfittedwithledbulbsdottingnotjust the main, but even interior roads. This is being credited to the town’s young municipal board chairman Qamrul Islam, who is from the ruling SP. The second is the long bank and ATM lines.

“Out of the four ATMS here, only the one belonging to HDFC functions occasionally. The second (of Punjab National Bank) is non-functional, the third (Bank of Baroda) was shut from November 8 till January 11, and the fourth (State Bank of India) has no money most of the time. Even the banks mostly give only Rs 1,000 at a time,” says Keshav Singh, from Balkishanpur, a village nearby.

For the current Assembly polls, the BSP’S candidate from Dhampur is Mohammadghazi,whohasafamilybusiness of manufacturing paint and art brushesunderthe‘sajan’and‘charminar’ brands.

Other leading brush makers from Sherkot include names such as ‘Wilson’, ‘Sunrise’, ‘Jainco’, ‘A One’, ‘Panama’ and ‘Master’. These firms basically source the raw material — PVC or wooden handles, bristles and tin ferrules, which hold the hairorfilamentsonthehandle,andepoxy glue — from outside and assemble the brushes using local labour.

“Thebrushesarehand-assembled,requiringspeciallabourskillsthatyou’llfind in this town,” says Ghazi’s father Mohammadkhursheed,whocamefrom Gungohnearsaharanpurin1976toestablish a brush-making unit at Sherkot. “Thosedays,weusedonlynaturalbristles like hair from pigs or from cattle and buffalo tails. But in the last 15 years or so, synthetic nylon filaments are mostly used.”

The BSP’S electoral strategy this time is focused around Dalit-muslim consolidation and capitalising on discontent due to demonetisation. Bijnor district has 43 per cent Muslims and 21 per cent Dalits, apartfromitbeinghometoindustrieslike brush-making in Sherkot, glass-bottle manufacturing in Kiratpur and handlooms in Nehtaur, all of which have been impacted by demonetisation.

While the BSP was the first to announce candidates for all of Bijnor’s eight Assembly seats and seems most pollready, as of now, Dalit-muslim consolidation isn’t, however, easy to achieve on the ground.

“Our heart is with SP. Even if the party splits between father (Mulayam Singh Yadav) and son (Akhilesh Yadav), we may go with the latter. His government has donealotofwork,especiallyinimproving electricity supply. If Akhilesh bhaiya ties upwithcongressandajitsingh’srashtriya Lok Dal, it makes our choice easier,” says Syedulhassan,atruck-ownerfromnindru Khas, a village near Dhampur town.

The BSP, on its part, is going all out to woo Muslims. The party has fielded Muslimsinsixofbijnor’seightconstituencies(bijnor,najibabad,dhampur,barhapur, Chandpur and Noorpur), and Dalits in the remaining two (Nagina and Nehtaur), which are reserved seats. It has also projected the internal feud in the SP as a reason for the community not to “waste” its votes that will only benefit the BJP.

“What nasbandi (forced sterilisation) didtothecongressin1977,notebandiwill do to the BJP and parivarbandi (family feud) to the SP this time,” claims Rasheed Ahmad, BSP’S candidate from Bijnor who is also chairman of the Nehtaur municipality.

The BJP, which is facing the heat from demonetisation, fancies its chances on a splitinthemuslimvoteaswellasareverse Hindu consolidation — plus of course, Primeministernarendramodi’spersonal popularity. “In a three-cornered contest, the BJP has the edge in at least five seats (Dhampur,barhapur,nagina,nehtaurand Noorpur),”saysthechiefgeneralmanager of a sugar company that owns two of the district’s nine mills.