Communal forces get a jolt with Grand Alliance’s first rally in Western UP

The grand alliance conducted their first rally close to Bhayla village. The Rajput community attended the rally in thousands. Rajendra Rana of this village has been made the minister several times.

We reached the village just as the people were returning back after the rally. The next large population here after the Rajputs is that of the Dalits. The village was almost deserted as the people had left; we met one elderly person named Jeet Singh who told us, “The Rajputs of the village will all vote for BJP”

Now no one talks about real issues here. They are all taken up by the fact that Modi has dropped a bomb in Pakistan. Even the youth seem to have sobered up. Though they cannot even tell of the schemes or the progressive work done by Modi, they still favour him.

It is worth noting that for the last 15 years, Bhayla village has been a fortress to the BSP and Rajendra Rana had won twice from the Deoband seat. He had the support of the Muslims also then. But now the Rajputs, of the village are against Dalit-Muslim Unity.

This rally of the grand alliance is being touted as a game changer and has become a hot topic of discussion in West UP. Maviya Ali, Ex MP, says, “The game has changed long back but now the picture is clear and many people are getting answers to their questions.” These things are in discussion now because this rally organized by the grand alliance seems to be the biggest rally held till now.

According to a sub-Inspector, the traffic and the crowd in this rally has been 3 times more than that of the rally conducted by Modi. Another policeman standing next to him said, “We have to see whether these people will also vote or not because in 2017 the crowd at AKhilesh’s rally was even more larger”.

Sudheer Chaudhry of Gangoh, who was at the rally on behalf of the RLD says, “This rally has cleared a lot of confusion. The BJP had spread a lot of confusion about the grand alliance saying that Ajit Singh is not being given his due respect. And that Dalits will not vote for a Jat. But Mayawati has cleared all those misconceptions and has won over the Jats. Now along with Ajit Chaudhry, his son Jayant is also getting equal respect from the population. And he was later called onto the stage and honoured as well.”

Mayawati also in her address kept asking the people to vote for this alliance. According to Sudheer, these rumours were spread by the BJP to prevent the Dalits from casting their vote to the Jats.

The main lesson of the rally organized by the grand alliance was that of unity between the Jats, Dalits and Muslims. All three leaders showed their mutual respect towards each other during the rally.

Mayawati spoke first and she appealed the masses to vote for the grand alliance thus showing her solidarity. Akhilesh spoke about harmony and cordiality, Ajit Singh spoke last and said that Modi is a big liar whose father did not teach him to speak the truth.

Apart from this all the other leaders also displayed a great sense of respect towards each other. Though Ajit Singh had reached there first, he took a seat at the back. The regional leader of SP, Naresh Uttam requested Ajit Singh to come up to the front but he politely declined.

Akhilesh Yadav then reached the spot in his helicopter but he sat in his vehicle for about 20 minutes till Mayawati came, after which all three of them then took their place at the dais. Akhilesh greeted both the leaders with folded hands and sat down after they had taken their seats.

There were a large number of Bhim Army supporters holding Chandrasekhar’s photo in their hands. Although they were asked to take down the photos when Mayawati comes, they continued to hold his photo up. Rahul Gautam said, “We are all big supporters of Chandrashekar and he is our hero and we want to show the other leaders that they cannot ignore Chandrashekar.”

And afterwards, Chandrashekar thanked his supporters in his tweet.

Mayawati concluded her speech in 32 minutes, Akhilesh in 28 minutes and Ajit Singh in 10 minutes.

The Dalits were present in larger number than the others. This has been the biggest rally in West Uttar Pradesh. The Rajasthan police were also called in for security.

Though the rally was to begin from 12 pm, the people started pouring in from morning, 8 am and by 10 am the traffic was stopped till 5 in the evening.

People from Saharanpur, Kairana and Purkaji of Bijnor were also invited for the rally. Asad Pasha, who had came from Muzaffarnagar, while returning said, “I came to the rally and witnessed the mandate against Modi. People from all classes have suffered because of him. The time has come to remove him. And people will definitely vote against him.”

The grand alliance has done the work of uniting the Jats, Dalits and Muslims though there seems a possibility of the Muslim votes being divided. But Mayawati has clearly stated that Muslim votes should not be divided.