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BJP’s Hindutva card failed to work in BKU’s bastion
SP candidate Nahid Hasan contested the election from jail and defeated BJP’s Mriganka Singh by a margin of 25,887 votes. People also voted against UP sugarcane minister Suresh Rana in Thanabhawan constituency of Shamli where RLD’s Ashraf Ali defeated him by a margin of 10,806 votes
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s Hindutva card failed to yield the desired results in the Bharatiya Kisan Union’s (BKU) stronghold – Muzaffarnagar and Shamli districts – where the saffron party managed to win only two of the nine seats.
In the 2017 election, the BJP had made a clean sweep on all six seats of Muzaffarnagar and won two of the three seats in Shamli.
Home minister Amit Shah had kick-started the BJP’s election campaign from Kairana and raised the issue of ‘palayan’ (exodus). He met families that migrated and thereafter returned and appreciated UP CM Yogi Adityanath for “improved law and order situation in the region, which gave people a peaceful atmosphere to live in.” Shah sought votes for BJP candidate Mriganka Singh by distributing the party’s pamphlets.
Meanwhile, SP’s sitting MLA and candidate Nahid Hasan was arrested after being charged under the UP Gangsters and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act soon after he filed his nomination papers. The BJP projected him as the mastermind of the ‘palayan’ (exodus).
However, voters defeated the BJP’s polarisation strategy and all three of its candidates in Shamli district lost the election. SP candidate Nahid Hasan contested the election from jail and defeated BJP’s Mriganka Singh by a margin of 25,887 votes.
The people also voted against UP sugarcane minister Suresh Rana in Thanabhawan constituency of Shamli district where RLD’s Ashraf Ali defeated him by a margin of 10,806 votes. Besides, RLD candidate Prasan Choudhary defeated his rival – BJP’s Tejinder Singh – in Shamli constituency by a margin of 7,107 votes.
Political expert Jamshed Jaidi said Shamli and Muzaffarnagar were most affected by riots in September 2013 and the area was turned into a “lab of Hindutva,” which benefitted the BJP in 2014, 2017 and 2019 elections. The BJP made a clean sweep on all six seats of Muzaffarnagar and two of the three 3 seats in Shamli.
However, 11-month-long farmers’ movement and BKU chief Naresh Tikait’s acceptance that “supporting the BJP was a mistake” came as a turning point.
Tikait declared that the “farmers won’t allow the BJP to turn Muzaffarnagar into a stadium where they could play a Hindu-Muslim match.”
The SP-RLD candidates wrested Charthawal, Meerapur, Budhana and Purkazi seats from the BJP and the latter managed to retain Khatauli and Muzaffarnagar city seats. Victory of alliance candidates revealed that Jats, who were dominant in these constituencies, largely voted in favour of SP-RLD candidates along with Muslims to ensure the defeat of the BJP.
RLD candidate Rajpal Baliyan on Budhana seat defeated the BJP’s sitting MLA Umesh Malik (also named in Muzaffarnagar riots case) by a margin of 28,130 votes. As the BKU’s headquarters in Sisauli comes under this constituency, the defeat or victory of candidates here is associated with the politics of farmers.
SP candidate Pankaj Malik, RLD candidates Chandan Chauhan from Meerapur and Anil Kumar from Purkazi also defeated their rivals from the BJP and sent a message that now harmony prevails over hatred in the district.
