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To regain lost ground, Maya plays ‘Bijnor’s daughter’ card
After the launch of the BSP in 1984, Mayawati made her political debut in Lok Sabha from Bijnor seat in 1989, defeating BJP candidate Mangal Ram Premi. So she referred to herself as Bijnor’s daughter.
Lucknow: Bijnor, the sugar bowl of west Uttar Pradesh is witnessing a tough fight between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Congress for the eight assembly seats in the districts.
To regain the lost ground in the district that was once a stronghold of her party, BSP chief Mayawati has played the ‘daughter of Bijnor’ card. After the launch of the BSP in 1984, Mayawati made her political debut in Lok Sabha from Bijnor seat in 1989, defeating BJP candidate Mangal Ram Premi.
Then the BSP mobilized its cadre to convert Bijnor into a stronghold of the party. Recalling the event, Dalit ideologue Anant Rao Akela said BSP founder Kanshi Ram called upon the party workers to visit the Dalit households in the district and to donate fund in the party coffer after Congress candidate Meera Kumar defeated Mayawati in the by-poll on Bijnor Lok Sabha seat held in 1985. Kanshi Ram’s call mobilized the Dalits and soon the BSP flags were installed in Dalit households in the district. In the 1989 general election, Mayawati won the seat, he said.
In the 2007 assembly election, the BSP secured victory on all the seven seats in Bijnor district. Under the SP wave in 2012, the BSP bagged four seats while the BJP and SP secured victory on two seats respectively. In the 2017 assembly election, when the saffron wave swept over the state, the BJP bagged six seats while the SP won two seats. The BSP failed to open its account in the district.
Addressing public meetings in Saharanpur, Amroha and Bareilly in the first week of February, the BSP chief played ‘Bijnor’s daughter’ card. “The people of Bijnor say that I belong to their land, I am their daughter. The people of west UP played important role in making the BSP strong,” she said.
The BSP is working on a Dalit- Muslim alliance to secure victory in Bijnor. Among the eight assembly seats in the district, BSP has fielded four Muslim candidates, Haji Ziyauddin Ansari from Noorpur, Shakeel Hashmi from Chandpur, Shahnawaz Alam from Najibabad and Mohammad Ghazi from Barhpaur seat, two Dalits Brajpaland Priya Singh from Nagina and Nehtaur seats and Ruchi Vira from Bijnore seats while Thakur Moolchand Chauhan has been given ticket from Dhampur assembly seat.
The Samajwadi Party has fielded sitting MLAs Tasleem Ahmed from Najibabad seat and Manoj Kumar Paras from Nagina seat. Swami Omvesh has been fielded from Chandpur seat, Ram Avtar Singh from Noorpur, Naimul Hasan from Dhampur and Kapil Kumar from Barhapur seat. Two seats Nehtaur and Bijnor have been allotted to alliance partner RLD.
To retain its hold in the area, the BJP has fielded former MP Bharatendra Singh, a scion of the Bijnor royal family, from Najibabad assembly seat. Chandra Prakash Singh, brother of former MLA Lokendra Singh who died in a road accident in 2018, has been fielded from Noorpur seat and sitting MLAs Kunwar Sushant Singh from Barhapur, Ashok Kumar rana from Dhampur, Om Kumar from Nehtaur, Such Chaudhary from Bijnor and Kamlesh Saini from Chandpur assembly seat.
Addressing a public meeting in Bijnor on Thursday, chief minister Yogi Adityanath called upon the people to support the BJP, saying the double engine BJP government had launched several development projects in the area, worked for the welfare of the farmers and established rule of law.
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav raised the issue of delay in the payment of arrears to sugarcane farmers, death of farmers during the agitation against the three farms laws and large migration of people during the Covid pandemic, while addressing a public meeting in the district on Thursday.
Located on the border of Uttarakhand, Bijnor is also the land of Vidura, a character in the epic Mahabharata, who is described as prime minister of Kuru Kingdom. The local people had raised the demand to develop Vidura’s birth place as a tourist spot, said AK Chaudhary a school teacher in Bijnor government college.
The polling for 55 seats located in nine districts of west UP, including Bijnor, will be held in the second phase on February 14.
