Ground report from Muzaffarnagar: BJP out of contest against SP-RLD alliance, communal card a flop

To reach Shamli Bus Stand from the famous Meenakshi Chowk of Muzaffarnagar city, one has to cross a main road of about 3 km, which passes through Khalapar, the most well-known locality of Muzaffarnagar.

Khalapar is followed by Khadarwala and then Krishnapuri-Prempuri. Khalapar is a Muslim-majority area, while Khadarwala is a Dalit-majority and Krishnapuri-Prempuri is a Jat-majority area.

During the 2013 riots, this area had caused a headache for the administration. In that dark week, no one blinked at night. The police was facing a hardship and there were many face-to-face confrontations. No one dared to go alone in each other's areas. The police was guarding every door. This was the most tense area during the Muzaffarnagar riots.

After nine years, the atmosphere has completely changed in this area which has a mixed population of more than 1,50,000. This is very evident from the activity at the house of Samajwadi Party-RLD alliance candidate Pankaj Malik from Charthawal, the assembly seat with the largest Muslim population of Muzaffarnagar district, which falls in Krishnapuri locality.

Jat and Muslim activists return to Pankaj Malik's house late in the night after campaigning, have tea together and discuss the day's activities. Not only this, now the Jats have no hesitation in going to Khalapar at any time late in the night, nor do any Muslims from Khalapar have any issue visiting Krishnapuri.

Dilshad Pehalwan of Khalapar says that the atmosphere has completely changed. “Both the communities must get the credit for this. People realised the blunder of following the politics of Partition. Many of my Jat friends sit at my house. Muslims also go to their houses. Now if there is a discussion on the riots, both communities regret their mistakes. The riots were totally political,” he says.

Another resident, Ajay Chaudhary agrees with him. “It is like reconciliation after a fight in the family. We all must live together,” he says.

There are six assembly seats in Muzaffarnagar District: Shahar, Charthawal, Purqazi, Meerapur, Khatauli and Budhana. In all these seats, there is a direct fight between the SP-RLD alliance and the BJP. Talking to people makes it clear that they are keen to remove government.

The SP-RLD alliance has not fielded a single Muslim candidate in Muzaffarnagar despite presence of 7 lakh Muslim voters. When asked about this in a press conference, Akhilesh Yadav referred to the ‘Ganga Jamuna Tehzeeb’.

The SP-RLD alliance has played a game of social engineering in ticket distribution, which is unique in itself. For example, Samajwadi Party leader Chandan Chauhan has been given the symbol of RLD in Meerapur assembly seat. Apart from this, former MP Rajpal Saini, who joined SP, is also contesting from Khatauli assembly on the election symbol of RLD.

In this way the equation of castes has been simplified.

RLD is contesting on 4 of the 6 assembly seats of Muzaffarnagar, while Samajwadi Party's candidate is on the remaining 2.

In the 2017 elections, the BJP won all the seats. It has changed the candidate only in Meerapur where BJP MLA Avtar Singh Bhadana is now contesting from Jewar by switching sides as the candidate of the SP-RLD alliance.

There is widespread resentment in the constituencies of sitting BJP MLAs.

MLA of Khatauli Vikram Saini and MLA of Budhana Umesh Malik are, in particular, facing huge opposition. Malik is seen going for election campaign with a heavy protective force. BJP is also weak in Purqazi assembly seat, where former Congress minister Deepak Kumar looks stronger than BJP candidate Pramod Untwal. Former minister Umakiran is spoiling the calculations of alliance candidate Anil Kumar here. The alliance candidate in the Shahar assembly seat looks weak.

The number of Muslims in all the assembly seats is over one lakh. There is solidarity between Jats and Muslims. Yashika Chauhan, the wife of Chandan Chouhan, SP-RLD candidate in Meerapur constituency, says that in politics, equation has its own value and social engineering matters, but there is resentment among other communities as well as farmers against the government's failures to resolve in their issues.

“There is a lot of anger about the attitude of the government. There is a question in the mind of the public regarding the problems faced during the lockdown and treatment of Covid patients. For 13 months, the farmers were agitating and after the repealing of the farm laws, doubts arose in the minds of the farmers. There is distrust among the farmers towards the BJP government. The exodus, riots and polarisation at the center of BJP's campaign in western Uttar Pradesh show that the party is desperate,” she says.

Kawal village, well-known from Muzaffarnagar riots in 2013, comes under Meerapur assembly seat. A resident, Kallu Qureshi, says that there is no communal atmosphere in the village.

“There is no discussion about the riots anymore. The village became very infamous. There was no violence here except the death of Shahnawaz, Gaurav and Sachin. The village is Muslim majority. Now there is trouble in arranging marriages. Shuaib Qureshi has left Kawal village and started living in Meerapur town. Dozens of families left Kawal. No case was registered against these people. We are also one of them. Especially the educated and progressive families left Kawal. We were getting maligned and wanted a better environment,” he says.

“The most surprising thing in Muzaffarnagar is that Jats and Muslims are now together and campaigning in the same vehicle. They are saying that the riots were organised by BJP to grab power. Now the BJP is trying to play up memory of the riots,” he says.

Danish Ali Khan of Jansath town of Khatauli assembly seat says that there is a direct contest between the BJP and the SP-RLD alliance. “The public's mind has been made up, there are only two sides: one wants to retain the government and the other wants to remove it. The second lot is in a huge majority,” he says.