There was vast multitude in front of him in Islamia Ground in Bareilly, still Mulayam Singh Yadav was visibly nervous.
He whispered in the ears of son Akhilesh Yadav who promptly nodded and passed on the message to the day officer. Within few minutes a chit came. The same was passed on to Yadav Sr who looked at it. Nodded his head and gave the chit back to the officer. Signs of strain were back on his face. The Samajwadi Party leaders were worried about Narendra Modi’s rally in Agra. The concern was legitimate as Modi upstaged Mulayam Singh on all counts — be it crowd’s response or the content of the speech — and people went home chanting NaMo, NaMo.
The Thursday witnessed two rallies in Uttar Pradesh — both of them crucial. One held in Agra addressed by BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi while the other addressed by father and son duo of Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav in Bareilly.
At the face of it, the SP tried to ignore Modi’s rally as their leaders said their rally was planned much ahead of BJP’s Shankhnaad Rally. But by the heart they knew they were up against Modi who has received overwhelming support in Uttar Pradesh in last of his four rallies and good response in Agra could upset their calculations.
SP’s national general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav while inviting Akhilesh Yadav to address the gathering said do not worry the crowd in Agra was just one-fifth of the crowd present here. The announcement was received with stoic silence. There was no response from the crowd. No cheering and no zindabads. It is not all. During Mulayam’s address he said: “I got a chit just now saying there are just 20,000 people in Agra” — thus justifying the fear SP leaders had about Modi in their hearts.
In comparison, Modi did not give a damn to the Samajwadi Party’s rally or Mulayam Singh Yadav. He talked about the vote politics and the ugly role played by the troika of the Congress, Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party. The crowd chanted “Modi, Modi” as he talked about lack of development in Uttar Pradesh. He talked about the plight of potato farmers and common people who were craving for electricity.
And 150 km south-west of Agra towards lucknow, Mulayam instead talked about Musalman and how his Government appointed Muslim constables in police stations. He talked about “Humne kiya” but did not utter a word about the sufferings people were facing because of lawlessness and lack of development.
It was a political compulsion for Mulayam Singh to hold rally in Bareilly — which is nerve centre of Rohilkhand dominated by powerful Bareilvi sect of Muslim. After Muzaffarnagar riots, Samajwadi Party’s popularity among Muslims was on wane. Therefore, the party asked Maulana Taufiq Raza, a prominent cleric to share dais with Mulayam. Azam Khan, the rabble rouser and the Muslim face of the Samajwadi Party was made the chief guest of this function.
Whatever be the political compulsion of the Samajwadi Party, Modi preferred to roar from Mulayam Singh Yadav’s den and chose Agra which falls under the Brij region of BJP’s territorial demarcation. It has eight lok Sabha seats namely Agra, Fatehpur Sikri, Hathras, Aligarh, Mathura, Firozabad, Mainpuri and Etah. Big names in Uttar Pradesh politics belong to this area. Samajwadi Party national president Mulayam Singh Yadav is MP from Mainuri while former Chief Minister Kalyan Singh represents Etah Parliamentary Constituency as an Independent candidate.
Modi roared like a lion in Agra forcing Mulayam Singh to remind the party workers in Bareilly that he was also a candidate from Mainpuri and pleaded them to work hard to ensure his victory in 2014 elections.