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A tour of six of the eight constituencies that went to vote on Friday in western Uttar Pradesh suggested that the perception of a sense of security provided by the Yogi Adityanath government is an overriding factor in voters sticking with the Bharatiya Janata Party amid problems related to corruption, unemployment, and inflation. This sense of security, along with infrastructure works, particularly the Delhi-Meerut Expressway, the Noida-Kanpur Expressway, and the Regional Rapid Transit System are giving the villagers a continued reason to vote for the BJP candidates.
“Our women can freely take a morning walk alongside the expressway and our cattle are safe because the illegal slaughterhouse in the region has been shut down,” 70-year-old Ram Pal Tyagi said on the polling day in Meerut’s Kharkhauda village. The closure of slaughterhouses, the farmer-turned-small business owner added, had improved the quality of water as well.
On the issue of stray cattle, a group of local men held that the problem was of their own making. “We unleash them [cattle] and they increase in numbers. In part because they are not being stolen any more, and also because of an end to illegal slaughter,” 25-year-old Lalit Sharma said. Mr. Sharma stated that although the State Support Price might not have increased commensurate to the cost, the silver lining is that the payment is more regular than previous regimes.
Among many voters it seems that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is credited for improving India’s global image. However, many also asserted that the “mangalstura” jibe was beneath his stature. “We didn’t expect it from him,” Naresh Fauji, a former pradhan in Baghpat constituency, said.
“Had Yogiji said something similar, we wouldn’t have minded it but Modiji saying this sent an impression that all is not well in the march to 400 seats,” he added.
Regarding the BJP’s 400 seat objective, lawyer Dhiraj Sharma said, “When you started this morning, you might have thought that you could cover the constituency in under an hour but it now seems to be taking you much longer. That is the same with the BJP as it gets closer to the elusive 400 figure.”
He said that while there is discontent among voters, those observers who make the caste calculations leave out the Kashyap, Saini, and Valmiki communities among the SCs. “They are still strongly behind the BJP, and would make the difference wherever there is a close fight,” he said.
There is also some discontentment among upper caste voters in the region, who complain of losing out on farm workers because of the BJP’s free ration policies.
Ramesh Saini who runs a small nursery said Mr. Adityanath has made the candidate redundant. “We know he [Mr. Adityanath] will get the work done through the bureaucracy and the police. We can safely move at night.”
The assimilation of the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and the BJP cadre remained a work in progress throughout the campaign. “Our leader [Chaudhary Jayant Singh] has asked us to ‘repay’ the debt of the Bharat Ratna awarded to Chaudhary Charan Singh. But his language in the speeches doesn’t suggest that we have to add ‘interest’ to it as well. So, while we are ensuring a victory for the RLD candidate in Baghpat we are merely lending a helping hand to other candidates,” Manveer Sigh Singh, a Jat farmer in Modinagar falls in the Baghpat constituency, said.
Rajveer Singh, vice president of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Arajnaitik) said this was the first election after the anti-farm law protests at the Ghazipur border. “Farmers have not forgotten the pain and unkempt promises. Like PM Modi always say they see the Bharat Ratna as aapda main avsar [opportunity amid adversity]. Modiji found himself in adversity in west U.P. He conferred the Bharat Ratna on Chaudhary sahib and it allowed the Jat farmers to flex their political muscle.”
In the fiercely contested Meerut seat, the Modi-Yogi magic is being stretched thin because BJP workers have not been able to devote themselves to actor-turned-politician Arun Govil, who continued to be seen as a celebrity outsider even on the day of the election. “Nirale hain [He’s unique],” winked a party worker as he related the political newbie’s inexperience in rough and tumble of an electoral fray. “He doesn’t seem to get that he was seen as ‘Lord Ram’ when the households had one television set. Today youngsters have mobiles. They see him as an old-time actor from some bygone age. Though some of the women do continue to touch his feet out of respect. That’s it,” the party worker said, adding it would impact polling percentage.
The anti-incumbency of the previous MP Rajendra Agrawal is also showing its effect. “Expressways were made, but tiled lanes were not,” local voter Ram Kishan Saini states.
Another voter, Ajay Tyagi, chipped in to shed light on the problem of high toll tax. “A modest farmer can’t think of using the shiny roads,” Mr. Tyagi said before he was silenced by his friends who insisted that the expressway had “reduced travel time and petrol consumption”.
In Aligarh, two-time BJP MP Satish Gautam is facing a tough time because of his foul tongue and poor report card in the eyes of the workers. Not to forget the fissures in his ties with the Kalyan Singh family. “The worker is there on the ground only because he has no other option. He is looking at Yogiji instead of the candidate,” a senior BJP worker in the city said.
Research scholar Faizan Ahmad laments the discontinuation of the Maulana Azad scholarship but praised Mr. Adityanath for improvements in the law and order situation in the region.
“Back home in Sambhal, during the Samajwadi Party rule, Muslims had this proclivity towards taking every fight within the community to the police station. Now they prefer to settle issues among themselves,” he grinned.
In Khurja which falls in Bulandshahr district but under the Gautam Buddha Nagar Lok Sabha constituency, Sami Ahmad Khan, a businessman who deals in ceramic pottery said Mr. Adityanath scored better than the Central government on the promises made. “Yogiji has finished the extortion racket that used to trouble us under the previous regimes but if the Central government makes it mandatory for the multi-retail outlets to source 50% of their products domestically our businesses will shine.” He rued that the outlets “are still dependent on China”.
