Minister vs ‘our boy’: For Karhal, choice is easy

SP flags are fluttering at Jain Inter College in Karhal, where “Netaji” (as Mulayam is called) studied and briefly taught. Among a group of Class 12 students playing cricket there is Sanjay Yadav. Waiting for his turn to bat, the 18-year-old says: “Who knows Baghel here? Even a child here will tell you their leader is Akhilesh. Bhaiyya’s popularity is unmatched. Yogi Baba (Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath) too would lose from here.”

Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav with his son Akhilesh Yadav at the SP party office in Lucknow. (Photo: PTI)

Mulayam was appointed as an assistant teacher at the inter college in 1963. Around the same time, he won as MLA from neighbouring Jaswant Nagar, which like Karhal and nearby areas has a sizeable Yadav majority. Since then, this has remained a Mulayam family fiefdom.

While Mulayam is the MP from Manipuri, his brother Shivpal Yadav, who is back in the family fold, is contesting this time from Jaswant Nagar on the SP symbol.

There are 1.40 lakh Yadavs in Karhal, with Shakyas (also OBC) making up around 60,000, besides 25,000 Brahmins and Thakurs each, 40,000 Dalits and 15,000 Muslims. On paper, should the non-Yadav OBCs, upper castes and Dalits vote together (which is what the BJP is counting on), Karhal could be anybody’s game.

However, even in villages such as Nagaria, with barely any Yadav voters, Akhilesh is ahead, despite the lingering Modi wave and the popularity of the Prime Minister’s Garib Kalyan Yojana that has meant free rations since the Covid pandemic began.

Besides, the SP has got its maths right, with alliances that could bring it votes of non-Yadav OBCs who, apart from Shakyas, include Sainis, Kushwahas, Pal and Prajapati. Akhilesh as candidate from Karhal is expected to boost the SP in the entire Yadav belt comprising Etah, Etawah, Mainpuri, and Kannauj districts, and 20 seats.

Ram Murti, 60, a Nagaria resident who belongs to its dominant Shakya community, says, she is happy with the BJP government, primarily because of the ration scheme. However, she says she will vote for Akhilesh. “He is our local.”

Heera Lal, 70, a Jatav voter and a farmer, says he will also back Akhilesh, though he has always voted for the BSP. “A vote to anyone else is a vote wasted here,” he says.

For Heera Lal, the biggest failure of the BJP government has been its failure to tackle stray cattle, whose numbers have surged since the Adityanath regime cracked down on illegal slaughter. “If the CM had controlled them, every farmer would have voted for the BJP,” he says.

Heera Lal’s brother Moti Lal, 62, says Baghel might be a Dalit but he has no chance here. “Bekaar mein lade hain yahaan se (He is fighting here for no reason).”

In neighbouring Ranipur village, where there is a sizeable population of Pal (OBC) and Banjara (ST) communities, the sentiment is the same – “Gadh hai toh jeetenge kaise nahin (Why won’t Akhilesh win from what is his bastion)?”

Deepti Kumari, 19, among the few women in Ranipur to have studied till Class 12, and now doing graduation, says Akhilesh has put Karhal on the country’s map. “The BJP has fielded a minister from here only because of Akhilesh Yadav. He gave the youth laptops. He also gave pension to my mother. The woman of the house getting Rs 500 meant she could spend it the way she wanted,” says Deepti, a Prajapati by caste.

Though traditionally BJP supporters, the Brahmins sense the direction the wind is blowing. Shiv Kumar, 60, an affluent farmer of Ranipur, says: “Who can defeat a national leader? We are voting for a probable CM.” On the other end of the caste spectrum from Heera Lal, Shiv Kumar is also frustrated with the government’s lack of action on stray cattle.

At Karhal town, local BJP leader Vijay Kant Dubey tacitly admits Akhilesh will win, though with a narrow margin. “It will be around 15,000-20,000 votes. People are scared to say they will vote for the BJP, but they will,” says Dubey.

But, even without Akhilesh in the race, Karhal has been out of the BJP’s reach. After the SP was founded in 1992, the seat has been won by it five times, losing just once, in 2002. Local leaders say the vote in 2002 too was for the MLA and not the BJP.

The BSP has fielded local leader and former district chief Kuldeep Narayan, but nobody gives him much of a chance. On Wednesday, the Congress announced it will not field candidates against Shivpal and Akhilesh Yadav, out of “political courtesy”.

The principal of the Jain Inter College, Yadhveer Narayan Dubey, is a Brahmin. The vote in Karhal, he says, is not about caste. “See, the whole state votes based on caste, but not here. People will vote for Netaji’s son and a former CM.”

2012:

Sobaran Singh Yadav, SP: 46.90% votes
Jaiveer Singh, BJP: 31.22% votes

2017:

Sobaran Singh Yadav, SP: 49.81% votes
Rama Shakya, BJP: 31.45%