A day before the first phase of polling in Uttar Pradesh on February 11, Jat leader Yashpal Malik made an appeal to the UP voters to vote against BJP and teach a lesson to the party for betraying the community.
Unhappy with the BJP for failing to fulfil its promises of giving reservation to the Jats, releasing youth arrested in connection with last year’s Jat stir and withdrawing cases against Jat youth, the ABJASS chief Yashpal Malik alongwith a team have been campaigning in Uttar Pradesh, to make an appeal to the Jat population to vote against the BJP.
The Jat outfit has been campaigning in the western UP, which has about 20 percent Jat population. The teams constituted by the ABJASS have earlier campaigned against SAD-BJP in Punjab and Uttrakhand as well.
Recently, the BJP chief Amit Shah had reached out to the Jats stating that voting for the Ajit Singh-led RlD or any other party in UP would not help their cause.
Given the significance of Jat voters in western UP and other poll-bound States, Shah had told the Jat leaders that it is the BJP which had fought for their reservation in education and Government jobs, which is currently in a limbo due to judicial intervention. The BJP chief had also assured them that the party will take care of their concerns.
However, Malik has termed all such promises as lies and appealed to the voters to not get influenced by such promises.
The stakes in the Assembly elections are very high for the ruling BJP at the Centre as well as the opposition parties as the results will be seen as referendum on Narendra Modi’s demonetisation decision. While Punjab had already witnessed single-phase election on February 4, Uttarakhand will vote on February 15 and people of UP will vote in seven phases starting February 11.