Farmers Movement Archive

BJP’s Dalit-Jat-Thakur trumpcard in restive west

Lucknow: While the arc lights remained focussed on the candidature of CM Yogi Adityanath and deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya from Gorakhpur (urban) and Sirathu respectively, there were three other names in the BJP’s list of 105 that also stood out — Baby Rani Maurya, Jaiveer Singh and Sahendra Singh Ramala.While Maurya is a Jatav, the Dalit sub-caste to which BSP chief Mayawati belongs, Jaiveer Singh, a Thakur, is a BSP turncoat who resigned from the UP legislative council to make way for Yogi Adityanath, who took over reins after BJP stormed to power in 2017. Ramala happens to be a Jat, who resigned from Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) to join BJP in 2018.Analysts saw this as BJP’s astute move to lend the much-needed traction to its grand Dalit-Jat-Thakur social coalition which is electorally crucial in west UP region, where BJP faces an assertive alliance of SP and RLD. While SP draws its electoral power essentially from the Muslim community, RLD has a formidable base among Jat voters.Baby Rani Maurya, who is BJP national vice-president, will contest from the reserved Agra (rural) seat, replacing sitting BJP MLA Hemlata Diwakar Kushwaha, who comes from the Dhobi sub-caste. In 2017, Hemlata had defeated BSP’s Kalicharan Suman by a margin of nearly 65,000 votes while cornering over 52% of votes polled. Sources said, by fielding Maurya from Agra, also considered to be the Dalit capital of UP, BJP seeks to wean away Dalit voters who stand staunchly behind Mayawati’s BSP.Wife of a banker, Maurya has been the first woman mayor of Agra from 1995 to 2000. In 2007, she contested from Etmadpur reserved seat in Agra, but lost to Narayan Singh of BSP. Maurya was appointed Uttarakhand governor in 2018, but she resigned two years later in September 2021. She was subsequently appointed BJP national vice-president. Her rise in the organizational ladder had fuelled speculations of her entering the poll fray.Jaiveer Singh, who has been fielded from Barauli assembly seat in Aligarh, too, has replaced the sitting BJP MLA Dalvir Singh. Significantly, soon after he vacated the seat for Yogi in 2017, Jaiveer was elected back to UP legislative council in 2018. Jaiveer had won from Barauli in 2002 and 2007, twice defeating Dalvir Singh, who was then with RLD. In 2012, however, Dalvir defeated Jaiveer. Dalvir later defected to BJP and defeated Jaiveer in 2017 assembly elections. With Mayawati out of power for nearly 10 years, Jaiveer too crossed over to BJP in 2018.So is the case with Sahendra Singh Ramala, sitting MLA from Chhaprauli in Baghpat district, the erstwhile pocket borough of RLD. He was the only RLD candidate to have won in 2017 assembly elections. His defection to BJP had left the then Ajit Singh-led outfit faceless in the UP assembly. BJP leaders said Ramala, a native of Baraut in Baghpat, wields considerable influence in the region and can help BJP consolidate Jat voters in the aftermath of farmers’ agitation against the three farm laws.

The Times of India

2022-01-16

Lucknow