“When Krishna-Balram joined hands, they vanquished Kansa. Today, a Haldhar or agriculturist Jat and a gau palak or a cow rearing Yadav have come together to eliminate Kansa — that’s the arrogance of power!” Madhuvant Chaturvedi, convenor of the Qaumi Ekta Manch, a leftist organisation in Mathura, said while addressing a meeting of farmers in Chhata.The Manch is supporting the Samajwadi Party (SP)-Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) alliance in the rural constituencies of the district, where a large number of farmers participated in the agitation at the Ghazipur border.
Across western Uttar Pradesh, the Bharatiya Kisan Union, small farmer groups and leftist organisations are drumming up sentiments against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), while Opposition parties try curious methods to outmaneuvre the ruling party.
“Jaise samajh main aaye (the way they understand it),” Mr. Chaturvedi said of the imagery he created in public meetings for garnering support for Akhilesh Yadav and Jayant Singh. This goes with the SP chief’s attempt to appropriate Krishna as his family deity. A day after his visit, his wife Dimple Yadav visited the Krishna Janambhoomi temple in Mathura.
Over the years, Mr. Chaturvedi said, the BJP had brought so much religious imagery into the campaign that its opponents needed a pushback in a similar syntax, referring to the BJP’s refrain of ‘Jo Ram ko layen hain, hum unko layenge’ subtly equates PM Modi with King Dashrath of the Ramayan. Mr. Chaturvedi links the leadership’s hubris with the party not addressing the real issues of unemployment and inflation, and goes on to add how two young men [Akhilesh Yadav and Jayant Singh] from western U.P. were taking on the might of the State’s east [the CM and both Deputy CMs].
In focused meetings with farmers in his village near Ghaziabad,Rajveer Singh, vice president of the BKU’s State unit, explained how the BJP was spreading conservatism in the name ofpalayan (exodus)and “love jihad”. The two planks form the base of the party’s social campaign in this election. “I am a farmer but I shifted my residence from Raeespur to Ghaziabad so that my children could get a better education. Is that exodus? Today, my daughter is a doctor and has spent eight years away from me for her education. Is it fair of me to force her to accept a partner of my choice?” he said. “The BJP is drumming up hatred against a community by generalising a few stray incidents where a few interfaith marriages have gone wrong,” Mr. Singh added.
Another senior BKU leader said the government’s move to withdraw the farm laws after making farmers wait for 13 months had backfired: “The farmer now feels that ₹6,000 is just a lollipop. He could get a lot more if guaranteed MSP (minimum support price) becomes a law.” He said farmers were being told the government had agreed to their demands on December 2, 2021 and it had a month to put the process on track. “Still, the government waited for the Election Commission to notify the polls. It shows the intention is not honest,” the BKU leader said.
Besides, he said, the way the name of Jayant Singh was being repeatedly wooed by top BJP leaders, even the fence-sitters had realised that their “true” leader has regained political strength. “If Jayant was so fit for the BJP, why was he lathi-charged in Hathras? Why was Chaudhary Charan Singh’s family was asked to vacate the Tughlaq Road bungalow with which farmers had a spiritual connection? All this is being underlined,” he said.
In the villages of western U.P., the RLD’sbhaichara(brotherhood) campaign has found resonance in villages. BKU workers, many of whom are RLD supporters, sport green caps withbhaichaaraembossed on it. But it has remained largely limited to Jat-Muslim amity and hasn’t been as strongly pushed for the Jat-Jatav bond. Observers said this could affect the SP-RLD’s prospects in the Agra-Mathura-Hathras belt, where the Jatavs retain the aggression that they acquired during the Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP) rule.
When asked if thereference to releasing thegarmi (taming theaggression)was deliberately made toconsolidate the lower Other Backward Classes (OBC) and Dalits against the SP-RLD alliance,Shyoraj Jeevan, a senior Congress leader from Hathras, said it could only work in certain pockets. “The Dalits know who is the bigger enemy is this time. Who will provide ration after March?How their vote will divide remains to be seen,” Mr. Jeevan maintained.
Parties are trying ingenious ways to foster this bond. In the Baldev reserved constituency, the RLD has fielded Babita Devi, a Dalit married to a Jat. “She carries her separate glass when she visits Jat homes. Jats love this gesture of their bahu,” said Kapil Saxena, a local advocate. The BSP has tried a similar strategy in the Khair (reserved) seat of Aligarh, where it has fielded Charu Keni, daughter-in-law of Jat strongman, Tejvir Guddu.
Even groups like the Bharatiya Kisan Sangathan that don’t always stand by the BKUare earnestlyspreading the message to vote in large numbers for issues that concern farmers. “Though we don’t always agree with the objectives of the BKU, we do feel that farmers should rise above caste and religion as a unitand vote for real issues. If it hurts the BJP’s prospects, so be it,” said Rajendra Yadav,nationalpresident oftheBKS.
