In Shamli distt, farmers vying for 'change'; SP-RLD candidates in stronger position

The SP-RLD alliance is confident of a big victory in Shamli district, carved out of Muzaffarnagar, which has three assembly seats.

In this Muslim and Jat-dominated area, all efforts by the BJP to polarize the electorate seem to be going in vain, with the political narrative dominated by the issues of sugarcane farmers who seem determined to vote in SP-RLD candidates at the cost of the BJP.

Jitendra Hooda from Khedi village of Shamli district says that there are 800 voters in his village. “Three people are talking of supporting the BJP. Everyone else is in the favour of the SP-RLD alliance. Of these three people, one is a relative of BJP's Shamli candidate Tejendra Nirwal, the second one is associated with the RSS, while the third one has a personal story. Once the villagers have a talk with them, BJP will not get a single vote from the entire village,” he said.

“Our issues are sugarcane, agriculture, land and prices of crops. The farmers have realised that this government does not care for them. The decision to repeal the farm laws was taken in view of the elections,” he said.

He said that remuneration for sugarcane was a problem in the entire district. “The minister in charge of sugarcane hails from this district. There has been a slight increase in the price of sugarcane. Amit Shah ji is have pamphlets distributed in every street, he may play the communal card, but our issue is sugarcane. Now nothing will happen by playing Hindu-Muslim card here,” he added.

There is a direct contest between Prasanna Choudhary of RLD and Tejendra Nirwal of BJP from Shamli assembly seat. In 2017, Tejendra Nirwal defeated Pankaj Malik of Congress. The political scene has changed a lot since then.

Manish Chauhan, former district panchayat president who fought from here with SP is now in the BJP. His father Virendra Singh is MLC from BJP. Prasanna Choudhary, who was District Panchayat President from BJP, is now in RLD and is presenting the toughest fight ever from Shamli, a seat considered strong by the BJP.

Jitendra explains that among all the three assembly seats of Shamli district, Muslim voters were lower in this assembly seat. “It is about 75000 here, compared to 1,15,000 in Thana Bhawan assembly seat and 48 percent of the total population in Kairana. It is necessary to bring some more sections together. It is a close contest. Many communities related to agriculture are angry with the government on the agriculture related issues,” he said.

Kairana is just 10 km away from Shamli. At present, Samajwadi Party has a strong hold on Kairana assembly seat. Its MLA from this seat, Nahid Hasan, is currently in jail after being booked under the Gangster and Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Act.

Nahid Hassan's mother, former MP Tabassum Hasan, was also charged under the same law, which is in general imposed on those involved in organized crime. She is yet to be apprehended.

Her husband Mannavar Hasan finds a mention in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the youngest member of all the houses of India. He has been a Rajya Sabha MP, Lok Sabha MP, Member of Legislative Council and Member of Legislative Assembly. He was elected as an MP twice. He was an MP at the time when he died.

Mannavar Hasan's father Akhtar Hasan has also been an MP from Kairana.

Wajid Mansoori of Kairana says, "Tell me, can such people be organized criminals? The Hasan family has been in Congress, SP, BSP and RLD. It is just that no one from the family has joined the BJP. Everything would have been fine if they would have been washed in BJP's washing machine. They are elected by the public by voting. It is an insult to the public to call them criminals. All the battles that the Hasan family has fought are for the public.”

According to Wajid Mansuri, Nahid Hasan was jailed for opposing a move to throw downtrodden and destitute people out of their houses. “Nahid Hasan will become a MLA once again,” he said.

Kairana has become a talking point because Home Minister Amit Shah spoke on the issue of migration at a rally and went around distributing pamphlets. Here, the BJP has fielded Mriganka Singh, daughter of former MP Hukum Singh.

Afsar Chaudhary, a resident of Kairana, says that the election campaign by Amit Shah had enthused Nahid Hasan's supporters. “After Shah’s campaign, it became a matter of discussion that the Home Minister himself is distributing pamphlets from door to door in Kairana to defeat Nahid Hasan. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also made communal statements,” he says.

Another resident Mohammad Wasim says that the result of Kairana assembly seat has already been decided by the public. “People have sympathy for Nahid Hasan. He is in jail and his sister Iqra Hassan is on the threshold of creating history,” he says.

Iqra Hassan is the daughter of late Chaudhry Mannavar Hasan. She has emerged as the savior of her family, beset with legal tangles.

Sameen Zaidi of Kairana says that Iqra Hasan was an educated woman who was earlier living in London. “She is a mixture of simplicity and modernity. She understands politics very well. She is very popular. The sympathy of the entire Kairana has shifted towards Iqra. It is common knowledge here that a single woman is battling the system to save her brother and mother. We should be with her. Iqra is the next generation of her family politics. Her name is on every tongue,” he says.

The Kairana assembly seat has 49 percent Muslims, while there are more than 20,000 Jats. The Jat community has earlier helped Nahid Hassan's mother Tabbusam Hassan to become an MP on a RLD ticket.

Pappu Chaudhary of Jat-dominated Una clarifies that there is no confusion in his society and it has adopted Iqra Hasan. “Now she is our daughter. There is no confusion. Kairana’s victory will write history,” he says.

The number of Jats in Thana Bhawan, the third assembly seat in Shamli district is around 60,000, while the number of Muslims is 1,15,000. Sugarcane Minister of Uttar Pradesh Suresh Rana is MLA from here. In the 2017 elections, he had defeated BSP's Rao Waris by a close margin.

At that time, Javed Ali was contesting from RLD while Samajwadi Party had fielded Sudhir Panwar as its candidate.

This time the atmosphere is completely different. In 2017, Suresh Rana bagged 90995 votes, while Rao Waris got 74178 votes. This time Ashraf Ali Khan is contesting as a candidate of the SP-RLD alliance and Rao Waris is campaigning for him.

Rao Waris explains that the victory of the alliance is certain in the Thana Bhawan assembly seat as well as in all the three seats of the district as it is a farmer-dominated district and the farmers as well as labourers are working hard to change this government.

Waris explains that there is a lot of resentment towards Suresh Rana, especially in the local Thana Bhawan assembly seat, with sugarcane payment and low prices being the burning issues.

He claims that the alliance cannot be divided on the basis of caste because the working class is distressed and wanted change of government.