Now, election battle moves to Rohilkhand
LUCKNOW: The battle for Uttar Pradesh now shifts from the state’s sugarcane bowl to the rice belt in the north-western part of the state, also known as Rohilkhand, in the second phase of voting on Monday (February 14) for 55 assembly constituencies in nine districts amid elaborate security arrangements.
The nine districts going to the polls are Saharanpur, Bjnore, Moradabad, Rampur, Bareilly, Amroha, Sambhal , Badaun and Shahjahanpur with six of them dominated by Muslim population ranging between 34.5 percent and 50 percent and some assembly constituencies touching 65-70 percent. The other dominant castes are Brahmins and Banias though Jats and Dalits, too, are in sizeable presence in about a dozen odd constituencies.
This also explains Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s outreach to Muslim women while addressing his first physical rally in Saharanpur on Thursday even as the first phase of voting was on. While remaining silent on the raging ‘hijab’ controversy, he spoke about the emotive issue of triple talaq, which he said his government scrapped to stop their exploitation.
The Prime Minister was trying to take forward his appeal to a community, which has supported the BJP in 2019 Lok Sabha elections in minimal numbers.
The same day, chief minister Yogi Adityanath also triggered a national debate when he cautioned the voters not to falter in their decision or else the state could turn into another Kerala, Kashmir or West Bengal, indicating pandering of Muslims by opponents.
The focus of both the leaders remained on law and order while the SP-RLD alliance leaders, Akhilesh Yadav and Jayant Chaudhary, responded to the ‘do ladke’ jibe with ‘sons of farmers’ and an attempt to polarise society on communal lines with, “it’s a fight between bhaichara (brotherhood) and Bhartiya Janata Party. The Election Commission’s ban on physical rallies and road shows ended on February
10. The region, famous for the wood industry of Saharanpur, brassware of Moradabad, knives of Rampur and cane furniture of Bareilly had given overwhelming support to the BJP in 2017, primarily because of fractured vote of the minority community.
The BJP had then won 38 of the 55 seats, SP 15 and Congress
2. The BSP had failed to open its account. Again on about a dozen odd seats, the major opposition parties have fielded Muslim candidates, which political experts believe, may be advantage-BJP. As many as 2,01,42,441 voters will cast their vote for 586 candidates in the fray.
Though the region has multiple issues -- law and order, farm laws, stray cattle (they damage rice crop and not cane fields), price rise and unemployment -the voting is more or less on communal and caste lines.
Rashtriya Lok Dal national president Jayant Chaudhury, taking a dig at the stray cattle menace, had accused the government of turning farmers into ‘chowkidars’.
PRESTIGE AT STAKE
The prestige of Jitin Prasada, who shifted loyalties from the Congress to the BJP, Mohd Azam Khan, the controversial Muslim face of the SP, and Dharmendra Yadav, cousin of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, is at stake in this round of polling.
Azam Khan is currently in jail since February 2020 in about 100 cases lodged against him by the BJP government and his plea for interim bail to campaign for the polls was rejected by the supreme court on February 8.
Azam Khan and his son Abdullah Azam are contesting from Rampur city and Suar, respectively, and in the absence of senior Khan from the arena, his wife Tanzeem Fatima, sitting MLA from Rampur, is campaigning and mobilising sympathy votes. A radical figure for the BJP, Azam manages Muslim support for the party.
Interestingly the BJP+ has also fielded its only Muslim candidate in the state in Suar with ally Apna Dal, moving from the Kurmi belt of eastern UP to Rohelkhand, fielding Haider Ali against Abdullah Azam, sitting MLA.
Jitin Prasada, projected as the Brahmin face of the party, was given a cabinet rank to appease the community upset with the BJP government over promotion of Rajputs by it, though the chief minister has strongly rebutted the charge with facts and figures of welfare schemes. Now Prasada will be expected to deliver in his home district of Shahjahanpur and adjoining areas.
The other personality to watch is Dharmendra Yadav in the Yadav dominated Budaun.
For the Muslims of the region, the loss of Deoband to the BJP had come as a shock in 2017. They are desperate to win back their elite area.
The campaigning is going to get shriller in the coming days- it has changed from virtual and door-to-door to physical rallies and road shows.