UP Elections 2022: First phase of voting in UP will be held on February 10.
The upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly elections are being touted as an existential battle for Rashtriya Lok Dal Chief Jayant Chaudhary and his party. The 43-year-old has been leading the RLD since his father and the party's Founder President Ajit Singh died due to Covid in May last year. His focus is on RLD's political turf - the Jat dominated belt in Western UP; he is hoping to recover lost ground in the aftermath of the farmers' protests.
With UP's first phase of polling set to take place on February 10, parties are pulling all stops when it comes to their campaign. The battle in West UP is being touted as the toughest, where top leaders across all parties have been on a campaign spree. On Monday, NDTV covered RLD Chief Jayant Chaudhary's campaign trail across Meerut and Modinagar.
Mr Chaudhary's first stop for the day was a public meeting at Meerut Cantt where he came to campaign for RLD candidate Manisha Ahlawat, a new face in the elections and an entrepreneur by profession. As Mr Chaudhry arrived in his SUV, he was met with huge applause and supporters got into a huddle trying to catch a glimpse of their leader. The stage was packed with local party workers. Someone gifted him bouquets, another worker brought a portrait of BR Ambedkar while a third group came and made him wear a blue turban. An old woman walked up to give her blessings to him.
In his speeches, he kept his attack sharp against the BJP. He said, "
Bijnor me toh dhoop nikli huyi hai phir bhi cancel ho gaya programme. PM jab 2017 me gaye the toh wahan schemes announce karke aaye the. Aaj jaate toh wahan ki janta ko jawab dena padta. Par aaj unka mausam itna kharab ho gaya ki Modi ji ka programme hi cancel kar diya."(It's sunny in Bijnor yet the PM's programme was cancelled. The PM in his 2017 campaign made several promises on schemes and he would have had to answer for those today. But suddenly, the weather turned bad for them and they called off the programme).
Mr Chaudhary's speech was peppered with humour. "Desh me jitne ballay bante hain usmein se 70 pratishat yahin bante hain. Bas ab Rashtriya Lok Dal ki bhi ballay-ballay kara do," he said, to a crowd erupting in laughter and cheer. (70 per cent of the nation's cricket bats are made here in Meerut. Now you also need to ensure RLD's victory here.)
While RLD's manifesto promises 50 per cent reservation to women in the police force, women were barely present at their rallies. Only 10 women were present at the Meerut Cantt rally, and all of them were party workers and seated in the first row.
As Mr Chaudhary left for his next campaign stop in Siwalkhas assembly seat of Meerut, his convoy was joined by supporters in several SUVs, open jeeps, bikes and tractors with RLD flags on all of them.
The party is fighting this election in an alliance with the Samajwadi Party, and Jayant Chaudhary has held multiple campaign events with SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav as a show of strength. However, beyond the optics lie several challenges.
His core vote bank, the Jats, are unhappy with SP leaders being given tickets to fight on the RLD symbol. In the Siwalkhas constituency, SP gave the ticket to former MLA Ghulam Mohammad on an RLD symbol. As he addressed the voters at the Siwalkhas rally, Mr Chaudhary said, "Ghulam ji is brave. He knows how to fight. He will fight day and night for you and will be present constantly among you as your representative. Give him strength."
The RLD leader's other challenge is the rift between Muslims and Jats that deepened with the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots. Consolidation of the two communities could play a key role in RLD's fate.
We accompanied Mr Chaudhary in his car as he left Siwalkhas for his next stop - Patla village in Modinagar. Local residents of Siwalkhas, mainly young boys, ran after the car. Some tried to climb on the back of the car while others kept tapping on the windows in order to get one last glimpse of the leader. He waved at the supporters from inside the car and then asked his driver to open the sunroof of the car. He stood up on his seat and thanked them with folded hands from the sunroof.
Once the car gradually managed to move out of the sea of people, we spoke to Jayant Chaudhary.
"Compared to pre-pandemic times, this is not a high voltage campaign with massive rallies. Smaller grounds are being picked but people are coming out in huge numbers. We have never seen such enthusiasm. There is anger against the government," he told NDTV.
On being asked whether he has managed to settle internal fissures, he said, "All party workers have faith in me. Issues have been resolved. It was being said that people in Siwalkhas are unhappy, but you saw that huge crowds turned up today. People look at the larger picture. In an alliance, both parties have to give up a few seats. Regarding Jats and Muslims...their default is a normal and deep relationship. But our focus is not just on these two but also on Gurjars, Bahujan, SCs and STs. They are angry with the government and want to come together against it. All these elements will help us win."
On whether he sees this as the make-or-break election for him, he said, "I have lost two elections. The struggle will continue. It's not like we will pack our bags and go. But people want to give leadership a chance. There is a lot of hope with this alliance coming together."
As Mr Chaudhary reached the Patla village in Modinagar, the attendance reflected that RLD's real strength lies in the farmer's belt. There were hundreds of tractors across the rally ground with several groups of farmers on each one of them.
Ramesh Mallik, a farmer, told us, "Just taking back the farm laws is not enough. We wanted the resolution of issues regarding Minimum Support Price and sugarcane dues. BJP has failed in doing that."
Another farmer Ram Kumar Chaudhary said, "Stray cattle has become a menace. We spend our entire nights guarding our fields. So much of our produce gets ruined due to them. No policy has been implemented properly on that yet."
After addressing the farmers at Patla, Jayant Chaudhary flew in his chopper to his next campaign stop in Baghpat. A tweet put out by RLD's official handle later had pictures of RLD supporters gifting Mr Chaudhary memorabilia of a handpump with a rose on it, as a mark of Rose Day. Handpump is RLD's election symbol. The tweet caption read, "From the supporters of Rashtriya Lok Dal #roseday2022 greetings to all of you! Keep this love alive!"
However, in the cities, the mood seems inclined towards the BJP. On GT Road in Modinagar, Meena Chauhan, a shopkeeper, told us, "We will vote for BJP because it gave cylinders and houses to the poor. It put an end to goons and lawlessness. Women feel safer now".
Suraj Kumar, a salesman, said, "I will vote for BJP because they are the only ones who bring actual development. Everything from roads to electricity. Both Yogi ji in UP and Modi ji at the national level have brought prosperity."