UP polls: Long-time BJP worker’s family alleges insult, joins race against Yogi

The family earlier sought a party post for Shukla’s younger Amit, and recently a ticket for Subhavati, 55. However, they say, the state BJP unit turned them down, saying the party had no policy for “mritak ashrit (dependent of deceased)” workers.

Elder son Arvind completed all the formalities just a day before Subhavati filed her nomination on Thursday, even as Amit rushed to Lucknow to collect the letter of symbol as required from the SP office. Subhavati admits this is a world far removed from what she has known, mostly away from the spotlight even while Shukla was alive.

She says she would hear Shukla talk about the BJP, its ideologies and policies, and knew his key role in elections in the Gorakhpur region that has as many as 62 Assembly seats. However, she herself was never interested in politics nor had any plans to join it, Sabhavati says.

For the past year, since his death, she hardly stepped out of home.

But on Wednesday, she was out campaigning in an area near the family home, around 7 km from Gorakhnath Mandir which is Adityanath’s fiefdom. She says she is asking voters to “honour” her husband, who had been “insulted” by the BJP.

Arvind, who earlier worked in a private firm, says the party had continuously slighted his father’s memory and contribution since he died. “The CM has visited Gorakhpur hundreds of times in this period, but he never came to our place to express his condolences. He spoke to us just once, over the phone. BJP state president Swatantra Dev Singh visited but six months after our father’s death,” says Amit, adding that leaders in Delhi were better behaved in comparison.

Arvind says Amit and he had “continued working for the BJP as dedicated sepoys after our father’s death”. But the final straw came when the rejections came with the curt: “Yeh mritak ashriton ki party nahin hai.”

On the other hand, SP president Akhilesh Yadav had met them and paid his respects to both his father and Subhavati, Arvind says. “When we returned to Gorakhpur after meeting Akhilesh in Lucknow on January 18, the local SP unit was there to welcome us and take care of us like a guardian.”

Arvind, who fields the questions on his mother’s behalf, says Subhavati is ready for the transition from “wife of a social worker” to “a social worker herself”. “She will campaign across the constituency against the policies of the BJP. Narrow roads and the lack of a proper drainage system are the key local issues we will raise,” he says.

He is not apprehensive about people not accepting the family’s switch from the BJP to the SP. “Ideologies are not limited to banners and flags, but lie in the heart. We will work for the SP throughout our lives,” he says.

About their winning prospects, Arvind says: “As the BJP’s candidate is the CM, we are fighting against a system here.”

In 2017, when the SP had aligned with the Congress, their candidate had got 28.21% votes – half the BJP’s 56%. But, said SP Gorakhpur district president Awadesh Yadav, they are counting on both Shukla’s name and her Brahmin identity helping Subhavati.

However, the Brahmin votes may see a division as on Thursday, the Congress announced Chetna Pandey as its candidate from Gorakhpur Urban. She was in the list of 33 candidates announced by the party, 15 of them women.

A poet and singer, Pandey, 37, is former vice-president of the Gorakhpur University Students’ Union and has been active in the region as a social worker. She was seen to be in the race for a ticket.

Another contestant from the Gorakhpur Urban seat is Bhim Army’s Chandrashekhar Azad.

A majority of the voters in Gorakhpur Urban are Dalits and Muslims, around 45,000 each. The Thakurs number around 20,000 and Brahmins 18,000. OBCs such as Kurmis, Mauryas, Rajbhars, Chauhans, Nishads and Patels are also present in large numbers.

Denying the charge that the party had ignored the Shuklas, BJP state spokesperson Rakesh Tripathi said: “Upendra ji was a dedicated BJP leader and the party made him state vice-president. He worked in the election of Yogi Adityanath ji (Lok Sabha) and the party too respected him. His departed soul will be disappointed with the step of his family members in joining the SP. They quit the BJP due to selfishness. They will realise their mistake after losing.”

On the denial of ticket, Tripathi said: “Several workers demand a party ticket for every seat. But when one of them gets it, others are not supposed to leave the party.”

–with inputs by Maulshree Seth

GORAKHPUR URBAN
2017
Radha Mohan Das Agrawal, BJP: 56% votes
Congress: 28.21%
BSP: 11%

2012
Radha Mohan Das Agrawal, BJP: 49.19% votes
SP: 20.42%
BSP: 14.43%