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UP polls: In Etah and Kasganj, it is Kalyan’s legacy versus MSY’s past influence
Assembly polls in Etah and Kasganj districts this time are likely to be a contest between the legacy of former CM the late Kalyan Singh and the influence that Samajwadi Party (SP) patriarch Mulayam Singh has had in both the places in the past
Assembly polls in Etah and Kasganj districts this time are likely to be a contest between the legacy of former CM the late Kalyan Singh and the influence that Samajwadi Party (SP) patriarch Mulayam Singh has had in both the places in the past.
Etah (of which Kasganj was part till 2008) saw Kalyan Singh and Mulayam Singh both as friends and foes. Considered arch rivals, theirs are contrasting images. While Kalyan Singh is praised for “sacrificing” his chief ministership for the cause of Ram Janmabhoomi, Mulayam Singh Yadav, now in his eighties, is criticised for alleged firing on kar sevaks at Ayodhya during his tenure as the chief minister of the state.
However, it was Etah which also saw the friendship of both in 2009 when Kalyan Singh won the Lok Sabha seat of Etah as an independent candidate with support from the Samajwadi Party after Singh moved out of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and was on way to forming his own party.
Kalyan Singh secured 48% vote share and won by 1,28,000 votes with the Samajwadi Party’s Yadav vote bank shifting to his side in addition to his own traditional Lodh vote bank. However, their friendship ended after the 2009 Lok Sabha polls because Mulayam Singh Yadav found it tough to explain his ties with Kalyan Singh to Muslims.
Kalyan Singh then decided to join the BJP again in 2013 and campaigned for the party in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. In September 2014, he became the governor of Rajasthan.
While Kalyan Singh, fondly referred to as “Babuji” in Etah, was elected MP from there, Mulayam Singh Yadav won the Nidholi Kalan, which was then an assembly segment of Etah district, seat in 1993. Rajveer Singh, the son of late Kalyan Singh, is the sitting Lok Sabha MP from Etah after he won the seat as a BJP candidate for second time in 2019.
Former UP chief minister and SP president Akhilesh Yadav, the son of Mulayam Singh Yadav, is contesting his maiden assembly polls from Karhal seat of Mainpuri district which is 56 km from Etah.
Both the BJP and the SP have had their sway in Etah and Kasganj districts. The SP had won all four assembly seats in Etah and 2 of the 3 assembly seats in present day Kasganj during 2012 UP assembly election. However, the BJP avenged the defeat by bagging all four assembly seats of Etah and all three of Kasganj in 2017 UP polls. Both the districts will go to polls in the third phase on February 20 (Sunday).
