UP Elections 2017: More than 60 people had died in the Muzaffarnagar clashes in 2013.
Past the sugarcane fields and mustard plantations along the National Highway 58, around 10 km before the entry point to Muzzaffarnagar town in western Uttar Pradesh, stands the first major security barricade. The paramilitary force personnel with automatic weapons and in their olive green fatigues seemed a bit more than the usual security bandobast. In this sugar belt of Uttar Pradesh, extra security by Election Commission is a reminder of the clashes between the Jats and Muslims that claimed over 60 lives in 2013.
The area was once a stronghold of Ajit Singh's Rashtriya Lok Dal. But the Jat vote shifted almost entirely to the BJP in a polarized 2014 election. Now Ajit Singh and his son Jayant Chaudhary are trying to regain lost ground. In 2012, Mr Singh's party won 9 seats in western UP.
Rashtriya Lok Dal or RLD's pitch is simple: The BJP didn't keep its promise of reserving government jobs for the Jat community; the hike in procurement price for sugarcane farmers isn't substantial; and the Centre did precious little to ensure that sugar mill owners pay arrears to farmers.
"The Lok Dal people are straightforward and not like others who lie," Jayant Chaudhary tells a gathering of RLD supporters and urges them to take his message to every village in the area that theirs is the only party that can bridge the divide between communities.
As Chaudhary wraps up and quickly makes it to the makeshift helipad where a helicopter is waiting to fly him to Mathura, NDTV catches up with Ajit Rathee, who heads RLD in Muzzaffarnagar.
"The main issue is that of farmers. Neither the Centre nor the state government has given anything to them," says Mr Rathee."That's why our supporters, our Jat brothers have come back to our party."
At a meet next to the Titavi sugar mill, opinion was clearly divided, depending on where one stood in terms of age.
There is considerable anger among Jats that many of the 2014 election promises have not been honored by the BJP. But the younger lot believes there is still time for the BJP to make good on its promises. The elders, though, talk about an emotional connect with Ajit Singh's father, former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh, who is still considered the tallest Jat leader in these parts.
It is also clear that the BJP may find it tough to repeat its 2014 success if Jats abandon them -- perhaps the reason why the party is claiming that their leaders are doing their best to get farmers their due.
Vijay Kashyap, a non-Jat BJP candidate from the Charthawal constituency of Muzzaffarnagar says how Union minister Sanjeev Baliyan ensured the neighboring sugar mills paid their arrears to the sugarcane growers.
"There was a payment problem with sugar mills, but Balyan ensured that we got farmers their money," says Mr Kashyap.
Unlike the rest of UP, where most seats are likely to witness a three-cornered contest between the Samajwadi party alliance, BJP and the BSP, in the sugarcane belt of western UP, Rashtriya Lok Dal -- fighting to stay relevant -- could make it a four way contest.