Kanhaiya Lal killing poll issue for BJP, not for most voters: ‘His family got jobs… what about us?’

“The point is, we want peace. If there is peace, there will be some business. After 2002, there were no riots in Gujarat. We need someone like Adityanath in Rajasthan,” he says, in a reference to the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister.

A few hundred metres away, paan shop owner Pradeep Sahu says: “Public ka mood kharab hai (The public mood is not good). This government is only working for Muslims. So, we will vote for those who are with Hindus.”

Sahu, who belongs to the OBC community, says he gathered more than a hundred people for a protest in the area, which has a mixed population of Hindus and Muslims, over Kanhaiya Lal’s murder.

But move out of Hathipol, and practically no one talks about the incident in context of the polls, due on November 25, unless specifically asked about it. This is true of even open and vociferous BJP supporters.

Both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah have spoken about the Kanhaiya Lal incident in their election rallies recently, accusing the ruling Congress of minority appeasement. The Congress in return has alleged that the killers were associated with the BJP.

The Udaipur City constituency is considered a BJP bastion, with party veteran Gulab Chand Kataria winning it seven times since 1977 and never losing since 2003. The adjacent Udaipur Rural constituency also has a BJP MLA. This time though, Kataria is not in the race, with the BJP having moved him out as Assam Governor ahead of the elections.

Rahul Kumawat, who lives in the Chandpole area of the city, barely 2 km from Hathipol, says, “Every politician is now talking about Kanhaiya Lal. But look at his family. Everyone now has a government job. No one is talking about jobs for us.”

Kumawat, 30, runs a photo studio near Fatehsagar lake and is a staunch fan of Modi.

In Chhota Brahmapuri, a Brahim-dominated locality in Udaipur, Aprit Sharma, 32, talks about the lack of civic amenities in the city and frequent incidents of paper leaks in the state when asked about elections. Sharma claims to be a BJP supporter with some of his family members holding posts in the local party unit.

When asked about the murder, he says, “Kanhaiya Lal is not a big issue on the minds of the people. The government has given his family members jobs, a lot of money. What else can you ask?”

Jitendra Vyas, 65, a Brahmin from the same locality, says he has traditionally voted for the BJP and will continue to do so even though he has no anger against the Gehlot government. On the Kanhaiya Lal issue, he says, “The accused have been arrested and now the law will take care of them.”

In the rural belts too, the issue does not appear to be top of the mind for people. In Titardi village in the Udaipur Rural constituency, people are divided in their loyalties to the Congress and the BJP, but all are voting on the basis of what their respective candidates have done for them in the past five years.

Rajkumar Suthar talks about water shortage in the village. When asked about Kanhaiya Lal, Suthar, an OBC, says the murder was terrible and scary and wondered why the accused had not been hanged yet. But he soon cuts to talking about money of several in the village stuck with the Sahara Group, whose promoter Subrata Roy died recently.

The pressure of the political narrative set by the PM, however, is palpable on the Congress. The party’s candidate from Udaipur City, Gaurav Vallabh, is making sure to visit every temple that falls on his campaign trail. On Saturday, Vallabh prayed at three different temples during his hour long canvassing in the Jain-dominated Hiran Mangri colony in Udaipur.