SP-led alliance made BJP bite the dust in region that suffered brunt of 2013 riots

The Uttar Pradesh assembly elections have thrown up some significant and telling results in the form of the BJP biting the dust in some key constituencies in western parts of the state.

In 2013, out of 9 assembly seats in riot-hit Muzaffarnagar and Shamli, the BJP had lost 7 seats but went on to win all 9 in 2017. This time, it managed to notch up wins only in Muzaffarnagar and Khatauli. Moreover, the margin of victory there was anything but impressive.

The SP-led alliance has won all three seats in Shamli district, while it registered wins in four assembly seats in Muzaffarnagar. Out of these seven seats, the RLD has won four and the Samajwadi Party has won three.

The alliance saw the biggest victory at the Thana Bhawan seat of Shamli district where the outgoing government’s Sugarcane Minister Suresh Rana lost the electoral battle to RLD’s Ashraf Ali Khan of Jalalabad Gharana by 11,000 votes. Notably, the region’s farmers were miffed with Rana for non-payment of sugarcane dues, and Khan polled over one lakh votes.

In the Kairana seat of the Shamli same district, jailed SP candidate Nahid Hasan defeated Mriganka Singh, daughter of late Hukum Singh, by more than 20,000 votes. Nahid Hassan's sister Iqra Hassan was leading the election in the absence of her brother.

Interestingly, Home Minister Amit Shah had carried out a door-to-door campaign at this constituency, highlighting the issue of “Hindu migration”. A record 1,30,000 votes were polled in Hasan’s favour.

Shamli city constituency too was won by the SP-led alliance, with RLD’s Prasanna Choudhary defeating BJP’s Tejendra Nirwal.

It may be recalled that Shamli district was the worst affected by the riots. The number of Muslim votes in Shamli city is fairly insignificant, lending significance to the victory of the opposition candidate.

The victory of the candidates of the SP-led alliance in Muzaffarnagar's Budhana seat, which has a high number of Muslims and Jats, too is of much significance. The assembly seat is home to Union Minister Sanjeev Balyan as well as farmers’ leader Rakesh Tikait.

The seat was won by RLD’s Rajpal Balyan, believed to be close to the late Mahendra Singh Tikait, who defeated Umesh Malik of the BJP.

Budhana was one of the most violence-affected places in the 2013 riots and saw a great deal of damage. Under the circumstances, it was significant for Jats and Muslims to join forces.

1,23,000 votes were polled in favour of Rajpal Balyan, who won by a margin of 28,000 votes, the highest in this district.

Charthawal assembly seat was won by Pankaj Malik of Samajwadi Party, who defeated BJP’s Sapna Kashyap. Malik got more than one lakh votes.

In other results, Anil Kumar of the SP-led alliance defeated Pramod Untwal of BJP by 6,000 votes at Purkazi assembly constituency, while Chandan Chauhan of RLD defeated BJP’s Prashant Chaudhary at the Meerapur assembly by 27,000 votes.

It is important to note that all the winning candidates got more than 40 per cent votes, a testimony to the unity of Jats and Muslims in the region.

Dildar Ahmed of Budhana said that while this development can be attributed to Jat-Muslim unity, it also indicated massive opposition to the BJP’s policies.

Manoj Rathi of Morna village of Meerapur assembly said that no one felt the pain of the riots more than the residents of Muzaffarnagar. “Our coming together, forgetting the brunt of the riots, is a message to those who vote under the influence of the politics of communalism. We are glad that we did not get carried away by polarization attempts made by a certain party,” he said.