Focus on Jat , Muslim votes may result in polarization of votes in BJP’s favour.
New Delhi: Samajwadi Party (SP) supremo Akhilesh Yadav’s political game-plan of the 1990s may be counterproductive in western UP this time. In fact, former UP chief minister’s move to focus only on Jat and Muslim (JAM) votes may result in polarization of other castes in favour of BJP. And, the BJP has already started to unite these castes.
With this strategy in place, the saffron party is understood to be taking a lead over SP in western UP. After SP struck an alliance with RLD to play caste card in the region, the BJP started reminding voters of “terrible law and order situation that existed in the 90s”. Observers believe that Akhilesh made a mistake by resorting to caste politics in the elections.
It’s a fact that the poor and Dalit voters could not come out to vote out of fear in early 1990s. The muscle men of politicians used to intimidate them and others used to cast votes in place of them. When T.N. Seshan took over as CEC and subsequently got polling conducted under supervision of para-military forces, Dalit and backward caste people of west UP could cast their votes. As a result, booth capturing stopped and law and order situation during polls improved. Then, SP and RLD got weakened in the region. BSP and BJP started consolidating their positions there. Rooting out crime took the centre stage during elections. Muzaffarnagar, which was known as the crime capital of the country, was targeted and criminals were dealt with strictly. When BJP came to power for the first time in the 90s, gangs of notorious criminals of western UP were finished. The BSP also continued this anti-crime mission. But SP was always soft on criminals.
Interestingly, SP’s equations with Jats were never good. Ajit Singh could not become CM due to Mulayam Singh Yadav. As a result of this, Ajit Singh joined hands with BJP. It is said that Muzaffarnagar riots were well-planned so that Jats and Muslims could be divided, and this is what happened also. SP wanted to woo Muslim voters to defeat BJP in western UP. But BJP got the support of Jats and other castes there. Hindu votes got polarized and BJP gained a lot during 2014, 2017 and 2019 polls. The results of 2017 were startling for Akhilesh as SP, which was banking on caste politics, could not go beyond Muzaffarnagar. The dominance of a particular community came to an end in constituencies under Saharanpur, Ghaziabad, Meerut, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Aligrah, Bulandshahar and Mathura.
But again, SP and RLD started making political moves to woo Muslims and Jats under the garb of farmers’ issues. But there is hardly any mention of their politics in Punjab where farmers’ movement began. But the BJP is in action now trying to win support of other castes. The saffron party is hopeful of Jat votes in constituencies out of Muzaffarnagar. BJP is eyeing votes of educated Jats from Muzaffarnagar, Bagpat, Shamli and Kairana. It is mandatory for BJP to take a lead in western UP which accounts for around 100 assembly seats. Last time, BJP had registered a massive win in this region. Now, heavyweights like Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh and Yogi Adityanath are campaigning in the region to ensure the repeat of the same performance.