Naresh Tikait urges people to vote for coalition candidates in UP elections
In a new twist in the politics of Assembly poll-bound Uttar Pradesh (UP), the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) on Sunday openly came out in support of the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD).
The news will come as another source of worry to UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath who is facing rebellion from powerful Ministers and MLAs of the BJP belonging to the Other Backward Class (OBC) community.
"I hope people of the State will support the candidates of this (SP-RLD) coalition," BKU president Naresh Tikait said while addressing a gathering of farmers at Sisauli in Muzaffarnagar area of western UP which goes to polls in the first phase of the Assembly elections on February 10.
The endorsement could drastically alter the electoral scene in the Jat-dominated region where the ruling BJP did very well in the 2017 Assembly polls.
Naresh Tikait not only made an appeal to the people to ensure a victory for the SP-RLD alliance but also handed over the symbol authority letters to two alliance nominees at Kisan Bhawan in Sisauli.
In a related development late in the evening, however, the Samyukta Kisan Morcha stated that any farmer organisations which will contest the elections will have to leave the united front.
The alliance of the RLD and SP on Saturday had announced its second list of seven candidates for the Assembly elections in which all candidates are members of the Jayant Chaudhary-led RLD. Accusing the BJP of indulging in polarisation in the run-up to the UP polls, Chaudhary on
Sunday said the BJP is driving a "one-gear car" that is headed backwards, and asserted that the anti-Muslim rhetoric will not work as people are fed up of such politics.
The alliance has fielded Rajpal Baliyan from Budhana and Chandan Chauhan from Meerapur, both in Muzaffarnagar district, and Ashraf Ali from Thana Bhawan in Shamli who reportedly participated actively in the farmers’ protest against the Centre's three contentious farm laws.
Last month top BKU leader Rakesh Tikait sent a strong message of the farmers’ support when he joined Jayant Chaudhary during the remembrance ceremony of Jat stalwart leader and former Prime Minister late Chaudhary Charan Singh.
Western UP is dominated by Jat voters and almost a hundred Assembly seats are decided by this voter base, which is predominately agrarian.