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Journalism of Courage
The BJP may be banking big on the consecration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya under the Modi government for the coming Lok Sabha elections, raising it at poll meetings. But Arun Govil, the ‘Ram’ in the race, appears to believe that God alone won’t see him through in Meerut; he is also counting on Narendra Modi and Yogi Adityanath.
As Govil, who played Ram in the hit Ramayan TV series of the 1980s, travels through the constituency in an open vehicle, flanked by the actors who played Sita (Deepika Chikhalia) and Laxman (Sunil Lahiri), people line up to watch them and shower petals – the adulation reminiscent of what the three received 40 years ago.
Slogans of “Jo Ram ko laye hain, hum unko layenge (We will welcome those who have brought Ram)” and “Jai Shri Ram” fill the air. The vehicles in the cavalcade, including auto-rickshaws, carry posters saying “Iss par sawar, Modi ka Parivar (On this vehicle rides Modi’s family)”.
Clearly overwhelmed, Govil tells The Indian Express: “The Prime Minister and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister must have a strategy putting their faith in me for not only Meerut but also the major seats of west UP… That strategy is known only to Ramji or the two leaders. I am just working hard to make my janmabhoomi Meerut, my karmabhoomi.”
Both Modi and Adityanath have campaigned in Meerut, which votes on April 26. Modi, in fact, officially kicked off his poll campaign from Meerut on March 31, where he appealed to people to vote for Govil, apart from the NDA’s other candidates in west UP. Addressing a meeting in Meerut’s Kithaur town on April 18, Yogi said that when Govil played Ram, he could have already imagined that one day he would be seeking votes for himself the same year as the Ayodhya Ram Temple came up.
Gesturing to the crowds, Govil says: “The electorate has already decided the outcome in my favour. This election is for the nation, and the people in the country have already decided that for the sake of the country and development, Modi ji must become PM for the third time.”
With the BJP having won the Meerut Lok Sabha seat the last three times, Govil clarifies that it is not that the area hasn’t seen work. “There has been development on a large scale. But still many things are left undone.”
Chikhalia, who incidentally was fielded by the BJP for a Lok Sabha seat back in 1991 and won (from Baroda in Gujarat), says Lahiri and she decided on their own to campaign for Govil. “When his name was announced by the BJP from Meerut, the three of us were at Ayodhya, and we decided to campaign for Govil because the truth is with him. And the truth is that Modi ji is set to become PM for the third time.”
As their roadshow, which started from Kailashpuri locality, wraps up at Abu Lane crossing in the heart of Meerut, Lahiri talks of how “the re-telecast of the Ramayana serial during the Corona lockdown brought us back into the limelight”. “It is high time that the reel Ram becomes Ram in reality by trouncing his opponents at the hustings.”
However, the curiosity and enthusiasm of the crowds notwithstanding, Govil could run into some hiccups. For the first time, no main political party has fielded a Muslim from the seat, which has a significant population of the community.
A senior RSS functionary admits: “The absence of a Muslim candidate in a constituency where they have a share of 36% in numbers has nullified the possibility of last-minute religious polarisation, which has benefited the BJP since 2009… Besides, Govil has the tag of being an ‘outsider’.”
The joint candidate of the Samajwadi Party and Congress is former BSP Meerut mayor Sunita Verma, a Dalit, while the BSP has fielded Devvrat Tyagi, a Brahmin, projecting it as part of its social engineering.
The SP changed its choice for Meerut twice before settling on Verma, who made news in December 2017 for revoking her predecessor’s decision to make singing of the Vande Mataram mandatory in Municipal Corporation meetings.
In 2019, the BJP’s Rajendra Agarwal had won the Meerut seat by a narrow margin of just over 5,000 votes against the BSP’s Haji Mohammad Yaqoob, who had the SP’s support as part of their alliance. It was a steep drop for Agarwal from 2014, when he had won the same seat by 2.3 lakh votes.
In the 2022 Assembly elections, the BJP won just three of the seven Assembly segments falling in the Meerut Lok Sabha seat, with four going to the SP-RLD alliance. However, the RLD is now a BJP ally.
Vineet Sharda, the Uttar Pradesh chief of the BJP’s trade cell, dismisses the charge that Govil is an “outsider”. “In 16 general elections since 1951, Meerut has elected an ‘outsider’ 10 times, including Shah Nawaz Khan, Mohsina Kidwai and Avtar Singh Bhadana. Govil is a son of the soil as he was born here and studied here. Why is he an outsider?” Sharda says.
K K Sharma, who retired as a senior provident fund official, and lives in Kailashpuri from where Govil’s cavalcade started, also says this is not an issue. “We are not concerned about whether the candidate is a local or an outsider. We elected Rafiq Ansari (a local) of the SP in the 2022 elections, but he has not shown his face since being elected. We trust Govil, he has said he will be available to people at all times. He is also looking for a house to settle here.”
Sharma agrees that the BJP could have had it easier with a Muslim in the fray, “as we have seen in earlier elections”. “But the BSP’s Tyagi will now cut into the Dalit votes that the BJP could have hoped for had Mayawati fielded a Muslim.”
Rajpal Yadav, the former Meerut district unit chief of the SP, says the absence of a Muslim candidate means the votes of the community will go “en masse” to the party’s Verma. “She has a fair chance of victory as the Muslims will vote for her while Hindu votes will scatter between the BJP and BSP,” Yadav says.
After the first-phase polling, which saw a drop in voting percentage, Govil has been urging the electorate to turn out in large numbers on April 26. “Cast your vote, come what may,” he said at a meeting on April 21. “By doing so, you will also be a part of the policies to be framed by the new government.”
