The fate of the UPA Government and the nuclear deal dominates the agenda of the public discourse in Etawah, the impregnable fort of the Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav for nearly two decades.For a SP supporter, it is not the deal but the political struggle that is important. A common Yadav, particularly the contractors close to SP leaders, who have enjoyed power during the last four years in Etawah, sees a ray of hope with Mulayam Singh Yadav shifting to the UPA. For a vast majority, however, the nuclear deal is a non-issue. Their real concern is peaceful life, free of goons who ruled the roost here during the SP regime. Darshan Singh Yadav, village pradhan of Sefai, the native village of Mulayam Singh Yadav, though illiterate is confident that the UPA Government will survive the trust vote. “Mulayam Singh will save the Government,” he says, though he has no idea about the nuclear deal.The Yadavs, traditional vote bank of the SP, are vocal regarding their support for the UPA Government and the nuclear deal. The BSP camp, on the other hand, is guarded in expressing its views.The Yadavs are confident that soon after the trust vote the SP will join the UPA and would be in a position to mount considerable pressure on Mayawati. Some even say that after the next Lok Sabha polls, Mulayam will be the deputy PM and will dismiss Mayawati government.“The flags on the vehicles of the SP supporters have reappeared, which went missing soon after Mayawati came to power in 2007,” said Ganesh Gyanarthi, who had contested last four LS elections from here as an Independent candidate.Etawah Parliamentary constituencyEtawah Lok Sabha constituency, presently held by Raghuraj Singh Shakya of the SP, hit the headlines in 1991 when Kanshiram, the BSP founder, was elected from here with the support of Mulayam. The election was countermanded by the EC in May 1991, following violence, allegedly unleashed by the then Samajwadi Janata Party led by Mulayam in UP. The understanding reached in 1991 led to the alliance between the SP and the BSP in the 1993 mid-term polls of the UP Assembly. Post-delimitation, Etawah has become a reserved constituency.
