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Journalism of Courage
Around half-a-dozen men sat around a hookah in a room in Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) Chief Mayawati’s Badalpur village in Gautam Buddha Nagar anticipating her victory on Saturday morning. They remained glued to a television screen, displaying updates of the state assembly vote count until 11.30 am when their anticipation turned into disappointment. “The (seat) count (for the BJP) has crossed the 300 mark. What is the point of watching this now?” asked Vijaypal Pradhan as he left the room.
The village is part of the Dadri constituency, which had elected BSP’s Satvir Singh Gujjar twice in a row. As tentative election results started pouring in, Badalpur residents expressed surprise and some reasoning. “She (Mayawati) could not stop the wave,” said Pradhan as the BSP slipped to the third position behind the BJP and the SP-Congress
Another resident, Survir Singh, noted that Congress and SP get Muslim and Mayawati gets scheduled caste (SC) votes. “Then who gave them votes? On whose votes are they winning? Votes from both these groups have gone to them. Yadav, SC and even Muslims have given them votes,” he said when the BJP was leading in over 300 seats. Murmurs filled the room minutes later when television channels reported that the BJP had won the Deoband seat. “Now, it has started. They have won a Muslim-majority seat,” Singh said.
Read | UP election results 2017: SP, BSP lose strongholds too
Pradhan added that no one expected this kind of a win for the BJP. “People have been silent. We believed that these silent voters will go with the BSP… We had expected that SC and Muslims will vote for BSP.’’
The residents blamed Akhilesh Yadav’s mistake of joining hands with the Congress, Samajwadi Party (SP)’s internal feud and BSP’s move of fielding Muslim candidates to prevent Muslim consolidation. Singh agreed with the panelist on television, who called the election results a decision of the people. “This is true. People must have thought that they have had SP and BSP governments, let’s give a chance to BJP. Now, Modi’s fate for 2019 has been sealed. Look at how much work he will do in the next two years.’’
There were also suggestions about Mayawati’s misplaced priorities in Badalpur, located around 30 km from Delhi. A closed park with red sandstone wall built during Mayawati’s rule stood out as a testimony to the suggestion. “What purpose does it serve?’’ asked a resident, who added that people have been reeling under unemployment, while crores were spent on the park.
