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Journalism of Courage
SOM or Pradhan; the BJP or Samajwadi Party? For the nearly three lakh voters of Sardhana in western Uttar Pradesh, which votes on February 10, the choice has largely been the same since 2012.
While the BJP’s Sangeet Singh Som has won both times, the equations are changed now. The SP-RLD alliance is making Muslims and Jats, divided since the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots, rethink their options. And the SP’s Atul Pradhan, voter after voter says, is not a bad replacement.
Sardhana, which falls in Meerut district and borders Muzaffarnagar, has around 88,000 Muslims, 50,000 Scheduled Castes and Thakurs each, apart from the Jats and Gurjars who number a nearly equal 25,000. While Som is a Thakur, Pradhan is a Gurjar.
In these parts, Som is also the designated ‘Hindu Hridaya Samrat’. He was booked in the 2013 riots over an alleged video of a provocative speech, but cleared. The two-time MLA, with seven criminal cases pending against him, has been at the heart of other controversies to roil this area, including the lynching of Mohd Akhlaq in Dadri in 2015, when he called for imprisoning Akhlaq’s family. He had also demanded that Muzaffarnagar be renamed Lakshmi Nagar.
Of the 13 candidates in the fray, Som is the wealthiest (with declared assets of around Rs 37 crore). Apart from Pradhan, the others include Syed Rehanuddin of the Congress, Sanjeev Dhama of the BSP and Sanjay of the Aam Aadmi Party.
Pradhan has 38 cases against him, more than 24 of which have been registered in the past five years under the Adityanath regime. Most of the cases are bailable; a large number are for violating Section 144 which prohibits large assemblies.
Shoaib Ahmed, the 26-year-old owner of a grocery shop near the local bus stand, says as an MLA, Som is very helpful to people in the area, “he is our hero”. “But the party he belongs to always plays communal politics before every election. Atul Pradhan is also a very good man and has been very active in the region for more than a decade.”
Other voters back this, calling both Som and Pradhan very accessible and responsive to their problems.
Wrapped in a saffron shawl at his double-storey house in Sardhana, as he takes a break from campaigning, Som says meeting people has made him realise “that this is going to be the easiest electoral battle for me”. “My wife (Preeti) has been getting very encouraging response even from Muslim women in Jamalpur village during the door-to-door contact programmes,” he says.
Pradhan has also been knocking on doors in village after village, and spending hours talking to people at ghers (the common sitting area in villages). He tells voters, “Dus saal se apka vote maang raha hoon. Abki baar toh jita do (I have been asking for your vote for 10 years. Help me win at least this time).”
Pradhan says he is hopeful of getting the RLD’s Jat support now, apart from most of the Muslim votes. “In earlier elections, the BSP fielded Muslims, and took away votes. But this time, the BSP has not fielded a Muslim. (The only candidate from the community has been fielded by the Congress, which doesn’t have much of a chance.) I will also get advantage of the anti-incumbency,” he says.
However, Som is confident the anti-incumbency factor does not work in his case, arguing that “people in my constituency vote for an effective local leader, and not for his party”. The BJP will win the state again, he says. “We will get even more seats than 2017 (when the BJP won 312).”
A dentist, Iqbal Siddique, says whoever wins from Sardhana will have a bumper victory. “The other candidates will find it hard to even save their deposits. The voting will be en masse, either for the BJP or the alliance (SP-RLD).”
Virendra Chaudhary, an advocate who lives on Binauli road in Sardhana, admits to some sympathy for Pradhan. “He has been virtually begging for votes since so long, but Sangeet Som too is very popular. It will be a close battle.”
