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Khatauli bypoll: Jayant shares dais with Bhim Army chief, accuses BJP of cheating people
Both the leaders jointly addressed a rally in Khatauli, appealing to people to ensure victory of RLD-SP alliance candidate Madan Bhaiya
Ahead of the December 5 bypoll to Khatauli assembly seat (in Muzaffarnagar district), the sharing of dais by Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Jayant Choudhary and Azad Samaj Party chief Chandrashekhar Azad for the first time has led to a discussion over its impact in politics of the region where Jats are dominant and dalits are decisive because of their presence in almost all assembly constituencies in that district in good numbers.
Both the leaders jointly addressed a rally in Khatauli on Saturday, appealing to people to ensure victory of RLD-SP alliance candidate Madan Bhaiya. Earlier this month, Azad had declared his support to the RLD-Samajwadi Party alliance. BJP’s lawmaker from the seat Vikram Saini’s disqualification as an MLA following his conviction in the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots caused the by-poll.
The RLD chief began his speech at “Samvidhan Bachao Rally” by welcoming people with “Ram Ram and Jai Bhim” while Chandrashekhar asked his supporters to ensure victory of Madan Bhaiya as gift on his birthday which also falls on December 5—the day of voting for the bypoll. “Will you send me empty handed from Khatauli?,” he asked and his supporters said in unison “no”.
Coming down heavily on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), RLD chief Jayant Choudhary accused it of cheating people. He claimed that Union home minister Amit Shah had promised that farmers will be given free electricity and now government was itself installing meters on their tubewells.
“They didn’t fulfil their promise of giving 2 crore employment to the youth every year and now are distributing appointment letters in Rojgar Mela to those who are already in jobs,” the RLD leader claimed.
Mentioning the defeat of his father (the late) Ajit Singh in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from Muzaffarnagar, he said, “People say that his defeat was managed but I say he didn’t lose but departed with victory by creating harmony among people.”
Likening the BJP rule to the British rule, the Bhim Army chief said youths were hopeless, farmers were committing suicide and common people were in trouble due to rising prices. He accused the saffron party of dividing people on the lines of religion, caste and creed for political benefits and exhorted his supporters to unite to give a befitting reply to BJP in Khatauli byelection.
Political experts and leaders see the sharing of dias by both the leaders as an important phenomenon in the politics of western Uttar Pradesh. Former state president of RLD’s SC/ST cell Narendra Singh Khajuri said it was an indication of changing equation of politics in the region.
Jat is a dominant community in the region and Dalits avoided being with them in election barring the time of Ch Charan Singh. RLD’s dalit face Prashant Kanojia too believes it will help in reviving the old fabric of castes when dalits supported former PM and Jayant’s grandfather Ch Charan Singh.
As per Kanojia, both the communities were not together for over four decades and it was a fact that in the changed political scenario, they needed support of each other to defeat the BJP in the election. He further said Jat is a dominant caste in western U.P. and dalits are in good numbers almost in each constituency of the region.
“They have the potential to change politics in western U.P. if they come together,” said Kanojia who claimed that Jayant Choudhary and Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar too had understood this fact that they needed to form a fabric of castes like the BJP to challenge the saffron party in the election.
“In the present political situation, even leaders of dominant castes too require support of other castes to form a winning formula,” Kanojia said. Narendra Khajuri, however, sees it as a combination of farmers and labourers which has the potential to change the course of politics in the region.
“The RLD does politics of farmers and if labourers (dalits) come forward to support them, it could create a winning combination for RLD in the region,” he said. RLD-SP alliance has fielded Gujar leader and former MLA Madan Bhaiya against BJP’s Rajkumari Saini (wife of Vikram Saini) from Khatauli.
Dalit leader and Shoshit Kranti Morcha president Ravikant, however, has different views. He claimed that BSP chief Mayawati still had hold over dalit votes and it would be difficult for Chandrashekhar to shift dalit votes in favour of the alliance candidate.
As per him, dalits admired Bhim Army chief as an activist but not as a leader which was evident by the fact that his party’s candidates could not mobilise dalit voters en masse to support him in previous election. “It is nothing but a political gimmick which will have no impact on voters,” opined Ravikant.
Political expert Jamshed Zaidi believes that Chandrashekhar has his fan following among dalit youths and his alliance with Jayant Choudhary, who belongs to Jat community, could help in forging a bond with dalit voters in future.
“It may happen only when both leaders work hard to reach out to their people and make them understand how much they need to support each other to challenge the BJP,” said Zaidi.
Khatauli constituency has over 3.12 lakh voters, including one lakh Muslims, 25, 000 to 30,000 Gurjar and Jat voters each, around 50,000 Dalit voters and nearly 30,000 Saini voters.
Moreover, BJP leader Jagat Singh, however, said it was too early to comment because only bypoll result would tell how much the presence of the two leaders influenced the voters.
