In Tikait district,sugar prices please but BSP still upsets

“Mulayam too gave fair prices,but Mayawati gave better than that,” says Krishnapal Chaudhary sitting with over a dozen elderly and middle-aged Jats around a hookah in Sisauli,part of Budhana seat. “She also got police recruitment done without bribery; 55 youths from Sisauli alone are either undergoing training or have already joined the service. Had it been the Mulayam regime,no one could have got recruitment except Yadavs.”

Everyone agrees but also complains about high-handed treatment by police once any complaint has been filed by Dalits,and about also alleged misuse of the administration by the local BSP MLA,Yograj Singh,a Jat himself,to settle scores against rivals.

“We have few complaints against the elephant sitting in Lucknow. But the BSP’s elephants are roaming here,trampling everyone using the police,” says an elderly Jat. “They need to be taken care of this time.”

They rue having voted for Mahendra Singh Tikait’s son last time saying the 10,000 votes he got ended up helping the BSP candidate win. “This time,we know the elephant must be tamed and it will be.”

In Assembly seats across the district the disenchantment is visible,with traders,Muslims and other non-Dalits complaining about corruption and police high-handedness.

“We had to pay higher prices for construction material than those prescribed because the contractor has to pay those above… There has been no attempt to check that,in fact,it has been promoted by stopping other crushers from benefiting; the BSP’s favourite supplier has a monopoly,” alleges Praveen Gupta,a retail trader of building material in Muzaffarnagar. Most traders say they will probably vote for the SP.

What is likely to raise Mayawati’s concerns is that large sections of Muslims,who had backed her in the Lok Sabha elections by electing Kadir Rana and Tabassum Begum as MPs (that was before Prabuddha Nagar was carved out of the district),are not ready to align with the BSP this time.

“I am an auto dealer engaged in selling second-hand bikes after improving them. All such dealers have been harassed by the police for selling stolen bikes,” Shamsad Ahmed says in Khatauli.

“What did we get after electing Kadir Rana? Nothing except harassment ,” he adds,predicting that most Muslims would vote for the SP and some for the Congress-RLD candidate.

Many Muslims have rooted for Mulayam Singh Yadav’s party and the Jat community has sounded a war cry to rally behind the Congress-RLD candidates. The BSP,therefore,faces anti-incumbency across the seats of Purqazi,Charthawal,Budhana,Khatauli,Shamli and Muzaffarnagar.