For years, Noida’s skyscrapers, crowded malls, bustling plazas and glitzy corporate offices have cocked a snook at its poor siblings in the eastern part of Uttar Pradesh. But the relative prosperity and progress have not stymied the bane of caste and communal divide that has plagued UP’s politics for decades. As Western UP gears up for the first-phase of polling for 73 Assembly seats, development has taken a back seat and divisive issues have returned to centre stage.
In the caste and communal divide, the brouhaha over “notebandi” has added an interesting flavour, creating a tricky situation which pollsters and parties are finding difficult to assess. Noida is a perfect example of this confusion. Here, Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s son Pankaj Singh is making his electoral debut. The BJP decided to field Pankaj in place of sitting MlA Vimla Batham, who had won the 2014 bypolls.
Interestingly, Noida is considered “jinxed” for the sitting Chief Minister of the State. It is said whoever visits Noida loses the CM seat soon. Incumbent Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav too has thus preferred to stay away from campaigning in this populous town.
The other two Assembly pockets in this Parliamentary constituency of Union Minister Mahesh Sharma are Dadri, home to former UP Chief Minister Mayawati, and Jewar, which has seen a great deal of developmental activities including a plan to set up a new international airport.
In this poll season, in the villages, talukas and towns though there is the customary rhetoric touching the so-called agenda of development, the buzz of caste and communal polarisation is stronger.
Pankaj is the undisputed frontrunner in Noida due to a large number of pro-BJP middle class voters. But the picture is not so clear in Dadri and Jewar, where the BSP is banking on sizeable SC votes. Significantly, Badalpur in Dadri is the ancestral village of BSP chief Mayawati. The Congress-SP alliance is hoping to cash in on their unity and transfer of votes to each other’s candidates while only a ‘miracle’ can swing the contest in favour of the RlD on these seats.
Significantly, division on communal lines is more where BJP nominees are pitted against Muslim candidates from either the SP or the BSP, or both, compared to Assembly segments where there is a contest between all Hindu candidates from the three major parties.
In the 2012 Assembly election, Mahesh Sharma had defeated the BSP candidate by a margin of 27,676 votes on the Noida seat. While SP’s Sunil Choudhary got 42,031, Congress’ VS Chauhan had polled 25,482 votes and came fourth. later, when Sharma vacated the seat after he was elected to the lok Sabha in 2014, Batham won the by-election by over one lakh votes, defeating his nearest SP rival. Congress’ Rajinder Awana had polled just 17,212 votes while the BSP did not contest.
While the BJP’s bypoll victory was credited to Mahesh Sharma, this time it may not be a cakewalk due to the SP-Congress alliance. The SP has fielded Sunil Choudhary, who had lost in 2012 and is riding on the developmental slogan of Akhilesh’s campaign message “Kaam Bolta Hai”.
The Dadri assembly seat is witnessing a four-cornered contest and sharp divisions on caste and communal lines. Home Minister Rajnath Singh visited Dadri on Wednesday to campaign for party candidate Tejpal Singh Nagar.
Singh visited Bishada village in Dadri which shot into notoriety after the lynching of Mohammad Akhlaq by a mob in 2015 allegedly following rumours that he had stored beef in his house. Among the 18 accused arrested for the murder is Vishal Rana. Rana is the son of local BJP leader Sanjay Rana.
But what seems to be working in favour of sitting MlA Satveer Singh Gujjar of the BSP is the fact that the constituency is dominated by Behenji’s voters. The Congress-SP alliance has fielded Samir Bhati (Congress), who is popular among the Muslims as well as his own Gujjar community, and the RlD has put up Ravinder Bhati.
The Muslims in Dadri and Jewar are a divided lot and neither the BSP nor the Congress-SP alliance can hope for their undivided support. Interestingly, some Muslim voters in Jewar may also favour the candidature of Thakur Dhirendra Pratap, the BJP’s candidate. Dhirendra is a former Congressman and enjoys a good command in the community many of whose members were seen campaigning for him.
While SP has fielded a lesser known candidate Narendra Nagar, who is banking on Akhilesh’s “work”, RlD’s Brahmin candidate Kamal Sharma seems to be a non-entity against the sitting heavyweight Vedram Bhati of the BSP.
Away from Noida, at Dhaulana Assembly seat in Hapur district, candidates and their supporters are openly seen seeking votes on communal lines. Dhaulana will witness a three-cornered fight between the BJP, the SP and the BSP. Here two Tomars, the dominant Thakur community of the region, are pitted against a Muslim, a local strongman.
The BJP has fielded its four-time MP from Hapur Ramesh Chand Tomar, who came into limelight during the Ram Temple movement in the 90s, while the SP has given ticket to its sitting MlA, Dharmesh Tomar. The BSP is being represented by Aslam Choudhary, who was runner-up in 2012.
Alleging that ‘fatwa’ has been issued to Muslims to support BSP’s Aslam Choudhary, BJP candidate Ramesh Chand Tomar is appealing to ‘Hindu’ voters across various castes to back him and not let Dhaulana seat go into the hands of a Muslim. An FIR has already been registered against him for giving inflammatory speeches. Similar is the situation in many constituencies around Noida.