Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath greets the gathering during a roadshow in support of BJP candidate Sanjeev Sharma for the Ghaziabad bypoll in Ghaziabad, Saturday (November 16, 2024). | Photo Credit: ANI
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has finished his speech at the roadshow for the Sisamau election on Saturday (November 16, 2024). Standing near a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hoarding that read ‘Batenge to Katenge’ (Divided we will be destroyed) at Bajaria Chauraha here, Vijay Agarwal, a sympathizer of the saffron party, recalled Mr Adityanath’s last words – “We have to worry about the fact that our votes must be removed from every houseā.
The fight for the seat, which has an estimated 40% Muslim electorate, has been polarizing, sparking a no-holds-barred campaign aimed at bringing up entrenched social fault lines. BJP’s Suresh Awasthi is locked in a direct contest with Samajwadi Party’s (SP) Nassem Solanki, wife of former MLA Irfan Solanki. The poll to Sisamau was called for after Mr. Solanki was disqualified for being charged in a criminal case.
The BJP has focused on the settlement of Scheduled Castes (SC) from the beginning, with leaders such as UP Finance Minister Suresh Khanna, who is responsible for the Sisamau seat, Minister of State for Excise Nitin Agarwal and Lok Sabha member from Kanpur Ramesh Awasthi making it. outreach through public Chaupal. “SC will be key to the seat. SP needs only a share of SC votes to sail,” said Dharmpal Tiwari, another resident. SCs comprise about 20% of the 2.69 lakh voters.
Board ‘Batenge toh Katenge’
BJP workers are involved in the micromanagement of 55 polling booths dominated by the SC community, with thousands of local-level leaders from neighboring districts eagerly pushing for the ‘Batenge toh Katenge’ board to unite a large section of Hindu voters. “We have emphasized the need for unity. Even in the public meeting, Yogi ji pointed out that for a stronger country and (to avoid) the danger of fragmentation, the voters of Sisamau also want to be traveling companions to make a stronger united country,” said Amit Valmiki, BJP workers.
The seat has traditionally been a challenging electoral ground for the ruling BJP, with the party failing to win the seat since the 1996 Assembly polls. Mr Solanki won the seat for the third time since 2007 with the help of a strong social base. In 2022, the SP candidate won the seat with 12,266 votes defeating BJP’s Salil Vishnoi. This time the support of the Congress allies could also help the SP as the major party enjoys support in the constituencies it won in 2002 and 2007 and came third in 2012, 2022.
It is the BJP that is working to counter the PDA (Pichde, Dalit, Alpsankhyak) formula of the SP by focusing on the Dalit-Brahmin-OBC community. BJP’s Brahmin faces such as Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak are galvanizing voters with ‘prabuddha varg sammelans’ (intellectual encounters).
SP uses the sympathy factor
SP Naseem Solanki is banking on the sympathy factor because her husband, Irfan Solanki, was accused in the land grab case. He visited temples and performed Hindu rituals in an effort to reach out to Hindus. He visited the Vankhandeshwar Temple, offered “jalabhishek” and oversaw the purification of the temple with 1,000 liters of Ganga water to the Shivalinga during the campaign on Diwali night on October 31. But the incident caused an uproar.
Mrs. Solanki broke out in many public meetings recounting the ‘cruelty’ his family faced urging voters to support him. “Our support at this crucial time,” he said, at a rally near Sangeet Talkies in the city. SP leaders, including party presidents Akhilesh Yadav and Shivpal Singh Yadav, highlighted the “injustice” meted out to the Solanki family at the hands of the BJP government and demanded ‘justice’ in the people’s court. “Sisamau will show a mirror to the BJP. Injustice also has (the end of) age, otherwise goodness will not survive till now. BJP should remember that injustice and injustice will never die,” Mr. Yadav said at the rally.
Published – November 17, 2024 01:17 IST
