Amid Rajput anger, BJP tries to douse fires

Muzaffarnagar sitting MP faces “boycott” by the community

“RAJPUTS ARE like frogs. If they find themselves in a well, that becomestheir entire world. but they have to change, or the community will lose its identity ,” says an angry rake sh singh,56,a resident of Meerut’s Rardhana village.

He has just finished hearing Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s speech. Rakesh says he was excited, as it is not every day a CM comes to their village. plus, he likes “Baba (Adityanath)”, a fellow Thakur. “We have no problem with him,” Rakesh adds. “It is Balyan.” The reference is to Sanjeev Balyan, the BJP’S sitting Muzaffarnagar MP, who – in his re-election bid – finds himself in the cross hairs of raj put anger over Jat “dominance”.

The Rajputs, estimated to be around 1 lakh of the 18 lakh voters across the 24 villages in the seat and traditionally BJP voters, have called for a “boycott” of Balyan. They accuse the BJP of “sidelining Rajputs” and “creating disparity among communities ”, apart from “not doing any development”.

Sources say at the heart of the issue is a tussle over ticket distribution, with Adityanath’s supporters reportedly not having their way in western UP, whose eight seats vote on April 19. A BJP leader says: “Do you think other protests would have been allowed when the MCC is on? Where five people are not allowed to gather, ten soft ha ku rs are pro testing. the reason is Adityanath’s supporters

feel sidelined.” While Thakurs form among the most powerful groups in these villages, they are followed by mus li ms.ja ts are very few in number.

Ahead of Adityanath’s rally, a Rajput mahapanchayat was held in Saharanpur's Nanauta, hitting out at the BJP'S “political hatred” for the community, and questioningwhy not ha ku rh ad got a ticket from western UP (one from the community is among thebjp candidates). another ma ha pan c hay at is due on april 16 int hek heda village of Meerut.

While the BJP has repeated Raghav Lakhanpal, a Brahmin, from Saharanpur though he had lost in 2019, it has repeated three sitting MPS, in Balyan, Pradeep Chaudhary (Gurjar leader, Kairana), and Ghanshyam Singh Lodhi (OBC leader, Rampur). In Bijnor, an RLD candidate is contesting, its Pilibhit candidate is a B ra hmin,ji tin pr as ada. na gina is a reserved seat. The only west UP where the BJP has a Thakur candidate is Moradabad, from where it has repeated Sarvesh Singh, who lost in 2019.

One of the talking points here is the denial of ticket to former Army chiefVK Singh from neighb our ingGhaz ia bad, in favour of Atu lG arg.V KS inghhadw on in 2014 and 2019 by 61.93% and 56.51% vote share, respectively.

The BJP has been trying to assuage the Thakur anger. Before Adityanath, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, also a Thakur, held a rally in Saharanpur on April 10 and in Ghaziabad on April 3.

At his Rardhana rally, when Adityanath raises the slogan of ‘Vote for ba ly an ’, many wave their arms to indicate‘ no ’. while ba ly an is on the stage, he cuts short his address and hands over the mic to Adityanath, realising the mood of the crowd. In his speech, Adityanath alludes to the discontent, saying: “We have to think about the country, keeping aside personal differences... You just have to pick the lotus( thebjp election symbol ).”

Mahesh Kumar, 42, a resident of Khera village, battling the heat and dust of the rally, says: “When I was running from pillar to post for my daughter’s operation, I went to ask them (the BJP) for help, their people refused. How can Balyan come here to seek votes?” Kumar used to work in a plastic factory in Noida but says has been unemployed since the Covid pandemic.

Kumar, who says he will vote Not a rather than forth ebjp, adds: “We have a history of fighting battles for the rights of the people. What have they (the Jats) done?”

In the 2019 polls in Muzaffarnagar, the contest had been between two Jats, with Sanjeev Balyan defeating the Rld’ saj its ingh, who had failed to win despite the RLD contesting as an ally of the span db sp; the party is now a partner of thebjp. in 2014, in his first election from Muzaffarnagar, Balyan had won with 59% of the votes.

Shiv Kumar Rana, BJP Meerut district president, says the party leadership tries its best to accommodate leaders. “Our western UP president is a Rajput, I am a Rajput, our Moradabad candidate is a Thakur. I personally feel given our population, there could have been one more Thakur candidate, but sometimes we have to be satisfied... It is true earlier we received more posts than our number.”

The RLD, a Jat party, says it would be wrong to attribute the Thakur anger to the BJP tying up with it. RLD district president Sandeep Malik says: “The common voter is with us. The Thakurs and Jats are together.” He alleges the hand of “some people” in trying to “vitiate the atmosphere”.

Janak Singh, 55, a farmer, says the Thakurs also feel let down as they have been core voters of the BJP for long. "The area is still the BJP'S, but what choice do we have? Except for free rations, we are not getting any benefits.”