20 years, a murder case, and a rivalry born of western UP’s farm, Jat politics

The founder of the Rashtriya Kisan Morcha, Jagveer was shot dead on the evening of September 6, 2003, at Alawpur Majra village in Muzaffarnagar district. The family blamed the Tikaits with Jagveer and Naresh’s father and prominent farm leader Mahendra Singh Tikait being old rivals. They were both Jats, both members of the Baliyan Khan, both farmer leaders, and both followers of former prime minister Chaudhary Charan Singh.

While Mahendra Singh formed the BKU in 1987, Jagveer floated the Rashtriya Kisan Morcha a year later.

The main point of contention between them was said to have been whether as farmer leaders, they should enter politics. Mahendra Singh wanted to stay away and maintained that the BKU was an apolitical organisation. Jagveer argued that only if farmer leaders held power could they ensure betterment of peasants. Incidentally, Charan Singh was also of the view that farmer leaders should strive for political power.

Mahendra Singh Tikait addressing a Kisan rally at Boat Club in Delhi in 1988. (Express archives)

The bitterness between Mahendra Singh and Jagveer grew as the former rose in stature, and came to be known nationally for his widely publicised and huge protests, even as Jagveer struggled to carve a niche for himself in state politics.

His Rashtriya Kisan Morcha never really took off and became defunct in a couple of years, though Jagveer’s son Yograj later revived his political legacy.

It was Yograj who filed a complaint a day after the murder naming Praveen Kumar, Rajeev alias Bittu and Naresh Tikait for the killing. He said he was present when his father was shot by the three.

The three were arrested but let out on bail. Praveen and Rajeev, both local residents, passed away in the following years, leaving Naresh the only accused in the case.

In 2007, four years after the murder, Yograj was given a ticket by the BSP from Khatauli Assembly constituency in Muzaffarnagar, and won. Among those who he defeated was Naresh’s brother and BKU spokesperson Rakesh Tikait. By then, the BKU had shunned its apolitical stance and Rakesh contested on the ticket of the Bahujan Kisan Dal, a registered political party formed as the political wing of the BKU. Rakesh, however, came seventh at the hustings.

Apart from the Jat vote, and Dalit support on account of the BSP backing him, Yograj’s victory was attributed to sympathy vote for his father’s killing. Mayawati valued him enough to make him the Minister of State for Agriculture, Education and Research as she was voted into power in 2007 by a huge majority.

Those five years in power were the peak of Yograj’s political career, as his subsequent attempts at the hustings were unsuccessful. In 2012, as the BSP candidate from Budhana in Muzaffarnagar, he finished third. In 2015, he was expelled from the BSP and joined the RLD, founded by Charan Singh’s son Ajit Singh. In 2017, he fought from Budhana again as the RLD candidate and finished fourth.

Yograj has since remained with the RLD, now headed by Ajit Singh’s son Jayant Chaudhary, though the party denied him a ticket from Budhana in 2022. He was last seen leading a crowd of farmers in villages in Muzaffarnagar in January this year as part of a Kisan Sandesh Abhiyan by the RLD. “I am with Jayant Chaudhary with all my might,” says the 44-year-old.

As for the Jagveer killing, despite Yograj’s claim that he was a witness to Naresh shooting his father, a police inquiry and later a probe by the CB-CID found no evidence supporting it.

Naresh’s lawyer Anil Kumar Jindal cites this, adding that Navneet Sikera, the SSP, Muzaffarnagar, believed all through that the BKU leader’s name had been dragged into the case due to political rivalry. “The fact is that my client was not even present at the site where Jagveer Singh was shot. The complainant first named the late Mahendra Singh Tikait, but changed his mind and then tried to implicate Rakesh, but he was in Lucknow that day. Then he named Naresh as a co-accused,” said Jindal.

Yograj says he is not going to give up his fight in court. “He (Naresh) might have been acquitted by the local court, but we will challenge the verdict in the High Court and the Supreme Court. We will continue our fight till justice is given to my late father.”

Saying “truth has prevailed”, Naresh says: “My advice to Yograj, who belongs to our family, which is the family of farmers, is to shun the politics of hatred and work for the uplift of peasants who need effective leaders like him.”