E-Paper
It’s BJP’s Lodh card vs SP’s PDA poll pitch in Kalyan’s Karmabhoomi
As Kalyan Singh’s son Rajveer aims for hat-trick of wins from Etah Lok Sabha seat, SP banks on MY+ factor against BJP’s caste calculus and the Modi phenomenon
Riding on the Kalyan Singh factor and the Modi wave, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the Etah Lok Sabha seat in 2014 and 2019 general elections.
Pitching for a hat-trick of wins from the seat in 2024 Lok sabha polls, Kalyan Singh’s son and BJP candidate Rajveer Singh will now face the new found PDA—”Picchda” (backward), Dalit and “Alpasankhyak” (minority)—card of the Samajwadi Party (SP).
The SP has this time fielded Devesh Shakya to stop the BJP from winning the seat from where a Shakya community candidate Mahadeepak Singh Shakya emerged victorious six times in the past.
The SP move has made it an interesting contest in the offing in this Lodh-dominated turf of BJP stalwart Kalyan Singh. Not leaving any stone unturned, the BJP on March 17 inducted into its fold former Mulayam Singh Yadav loyalist and two-time MP from Etah Devendra Singh Yadav.
It, however, remains to be seen how much fruitful Yadav’s induction will be for the ruling party as he lost the polls from Etah in 2009, 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Etah will go to the polls in the third phase of election on May 7 for which last date of filing nominations is April 19.
Caste combinations show that there are 16% Lodh—a caste to which Rajveer Singh belongs— voters in this constituency followed by Yadav voters (14%). The SP on the other hand is banking on Shakya voters (8%). Collectively, the SP-Congress are also eyeing sizeable Muslims (9%) votes here.
For SP patriarch the late Mulayam Singh Yadav, the master of caste-based politics, Etah was the second home and he loved to start his poll campaigns from Etah from where he won in 1993 (Nidholi Kalan assembly seat). Yadav converted the nearby districts of Etawah, Mainpuri, Firozabad as Yadav belt and rallied the Lodh-OBC votes.
On the other hand, Kalyan factor remains here and there are no signs of Modi wave fading for BJP which eyes the Thakur (8.5%), Vaishya (6%) and Brahmin (5%) votes besides the dominant Lodh votes.
In order to maintain its dominance here, the BJP is set to test its outreach among Yadav community too, especially after the inclusion of Devendra Singh Yadav into the party.
Moreover, the Bahujan Samaj Party is yet to declare its candidate from the seat that has 12% scheduled caste voters too. This will put the SP’s PDA formula to test. Etah has had a mixed bag of patronage for political parties over the years.
Its first MP Rohan Lal Chaturvedi was on a Congress ticket in 1951-52. Interestingly, Hindu Mahasabha candidate Bishanchander Seth emerged victorious from here in the next two general elections of 1957 and 1962.
Congress candidate Rohan Lal Chaturvedi again won the seat in 1967 and 1971. Mahadeepak Shakya won six times from here in years to follow. Devendra Singh Yadav won on an SP ticket in 1999 and 2004 polls. Then came Kalyan Singh, a prominent Lodh leader, who won in 2009 and then his son Rajveer in 2014 and 2019.
