‘Want new blood’: BSP ‘absent’, SP ‘silent’, Dalits, Muslims look at Bhim Army’s Azad

One reason, they say, is to give a warning to Mayawati over her “silence” against the BJP and the “absence” of the BSP on the ground. “A few weeks back, when a Dalit youth was killed in police firing in Rampur, Chandrashekhar bhai met the family. But did Mayawati go? Or her nephew and successor Akash Anand? No. They have become VIP leaders,” says Kamaljeet Singh Ravi, the president of the Nagina ‘Ravidas Manav Seva Sangh’.

Ravi says not just Dalits but Muslims too will support Azad. Muslims form the largest group in the Nagina seat, which votes in the first phase on April 19, followed by Dalits. “Chandrashekhar is speaking for the youths, Dalits and Muslims. He is ready to hit the streets to protest… He is giving a tough fight. He may not win, but certainly he will teach a lesson to the BSP and Samajwadi Party. The winner will be either BJP or ASP,” Ravi says.

The Nezowadi Gaanwdi village is dominated by Dalits, numbering around 600, with the rest 300 being Sainis, an OBC group seen as supporters of BJP candidate Om Kumar. The SP candidate is a retired additional judge, Manoj Kumar, while the BSP’s is Surendra Pal Singh.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, when the SP and BSP had an alliance, BSP leader Girish Chandra had won the Nagina seat defeating the BJP’s Yashwant Singh by a huge margin of 1.6 lakh votes.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, when the SP and BSP had an alliance, BSP leader Girish Chandra had won the Nagina seat defeating the BJP’s Yashwant Singh by a huge margin of 1.6 lakh votes.

In the 2022 Assembly polls, out of the five Assembly segments in the Nagina seat, the SP won Najibabad, Nagina and Noorpur Assembly segments, but the BJP got Dhampur and Nehtaur.

If youths like Kamaljeet are impressed with Azad, whose Bhim Army has consistently found support among young Dalits, even the elderly are now looking at the 36-year-old with hope.

Tularam, 60, admits he has benefited from the Modi government’s schemes such as the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and free rations. He adds, “The BJP government is good, it has improved law and order in the state. Now Muslims don’t misbehave with Dalits here.”

However, for the next level of equality – like end to “untouchability still practised by upper caste Hindus” – Tularam says: “We need a leader from our community to be our voice at the national level.”

He believes Azad will easily pull off a victory if Dalits and Muslims come together. “Mayawati and her party are headed towards their end… People want new blood to lead the Dalits,” Tularam says.

People in Dalit dominated Nejowali Gamdi village in Nagina area on Saturday. (Express Photo)

Swaroop Valmiki, a fellow villager, also indicates how let down they feel when it comes to Mayawati. If she even now starts moving among the public, he would go back to supporting her, Valmiki says, calling her “the tallest Dalit leader in the country”. (Unlike Jatavs, the Valmikis have been shifting towards the BJP, which is also aggressively wooing Dalits.)

But, with the BSP absent on the ground, Kamlesh Kumar of adjoining Hasanalipur village says: “The community is ready to give a chance to Chandrashekhar and accept a shift of leadership from Mayawati, just like BJP supporters accepted the shift from A B Vajpyee and L K Advani to Narendra Modi and Amit Shah.”

Meher Singh of the village, which is also dominated by Jatavs and Sainis, also questions Mayawati’s decision to stay out of the anti-BJP INDIA bloc. “This means she is with the BJP,” Meher says.

Talks had also happened between Azad and the SP-Congress. However, these broke down after the SP refused to cede his demand for Nagina and offered him Agra or Bulandshahr instead.

Earlier, Azad had made multiple efforts to align with the BSP, even praising Mayawati effusively. However, the BSP never acknowledged him. In December 2019, Mayawati tweeted: “Dalits believe that the Bhim Army’s Chandrashekhar is… conspiring to affect the BSP’s vote share… He protests and then deliberately goes to jail.”

The BSP has clearly sensed the disillusionment for it now, as well as Azad’s rising clout. Akash Anand, the BSP national coordinator, chose Nagina to launch the party’s Uttar Pradesh campaign for the Lok Sabha polls. In his speech, he attacked the BJP, which Mayawati has refrained from doing, and also appealed to youths and Muslims to not get “misled” by Azad.

BSP candidate Surendra Pal Singh says it is the ASP that is helping the BJP. “Chandrashekhar has been propped up by the BJP to cut into the votes of the BSP,” Pal says, also dubbing Azad, originally from Saharanpur, an “outsider”.

On the same Saturday as the ASP held a rally in Nezowadi Gaanwdi, UP Chief Minister and BJP star campaigner Yogi Adityanath too held a rally at Nagina. In an appeal to the Dalits, he talked about “a new glory” accorded to the birthplace of Guru Ravidas in Varanasi, and the naming of the international airport in Ayodhya after Maharishi Valmiki – both Dalit icons.

Azad is focusing on wooing the non-Jatav Dalit vote to strengthen his chances. On Sunday, he addressed a “Samajik bhaichara mahasammelan (meeting for community harmony)” of the Valmiki community in Najibabad, where Muslims too were present. He targeted only the BJP, not mentioning either the SP or the BSP.

The Muslims too seem willing to give Azad a chance, seeing him as the only one taking on the BJP. In contrast, many feel that the SP has begun to their support for granted.

At Subhash Chowk in Dhampur area, Mohd Usman, a car hardware mechanic, questions the Akhilesh-led SP’s decision to desert “senior leader Azam Khan and family amid legal troubles”.

Akhilesh only went to visit the imprisoned Khan, who was very influential under his late father Mulayam Singh Yadav, ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. This was followed by the fiasco over nominations to Rampur and Moradabad Lok Sabha seats, where Azam’s and Akhilesh’s choices clashed.

Usman adds that, besides this, the SP too is missing on the ground. “Its candidate is an unknown face. On the other hand, Chandrashekhar fights for the deprived sections. Since only he seems to have a chance against the BJP, I am going to vote for him.”

Akeel Ahmed, who lives nearby, however, believes the BJP will win in Nagina because Azad will cut into both the SP’s Muslim votes and the BSP’s Dalit base. A beneficiary of several Central government schemes, he is not worried about a BJP win, Ahmed says. “The BJP is following ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’. There is no discrimination in welfare schemes.”

However, he adds, Muslims remain on the edge. “There is discrimination at a personal level. If any communal clash happens, action is taken only against the Muslim side.”

Maqsood Alam in Dhampur town, who expects the Muslim vote to get divided between the SP, BSP and ASP, says that while he remains an SP supporter, his grandson Aftab has decided to vote for Azad.

And he understands why. “Under the Akhilesh government, there was development. He also talks about PDA (Pichde, Dalit, Alpasankhayak). But he doesn’t speak boldly on the issues of Muslims, who comprise a majority of the alpasankhyaks or minorities.”

At a rally on the Hindu Inter College grounds in Nagina Saturday, BSP leader Saghir Ansari made an outreach towards Muslims saying the party had dropped their 2019 winner as Muslims were upset with him. Admitting that the situation in the seat is “not good”, he added: “But I appeal to you to vote for the BSP.”

SP Scheduled Caste cell’s national president Rahul Bharti plays down Azad’s challenge, saying the fight in Nagina will be between the BJP and SP-Congress. He admits the ASP may cut into votes but argues that the SP will get the anti-BJP Dalit votes.

Bharti says even the BSP is stronger than Azad. “After Akash Anand’s rally on Saturday, Chandrashekhar’s position has become weak.”

One important component of SP candidate Manoj Kumar’s campaign are photographs of Delhi CM and Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate recently, with the slogan of “Badla nahin, badlav chahiye (Need change, not revenge).”

The Opposition’s message of action against its leaders by Central agencies is resonating with voters – but only to an extent. Ankir Rajpoot of Najibabad, a teacher, acknowledges Kejriwal’s “good work”, but adds: “Action against him would have been taken on the basis of evidence. While such action at the time of elections disturbs the level playing field… this is not a reason for me to vote against the BJP.”

Kapil Saini in Nagina town sees the arrest of Opposition leaders as evidence of their popularity “among the weaker sections”. “How can Congress leaders campaign if the party’s bank accounts are frozen? Such actions show the BJP fears possible defeat in some seats.”

However, Saini also adds: “Protection of the Constitution is not on my mind when I vote. I choose on the basis of caste and factors like roads and law and order.”