Western Up Jats

The voters of eight Lok Sabha constituencies in western Uttar Pradesh, falling in the Jat and sugarcane belt, are set to exercise their constitutional right as polling for the first phase of the seven-phase parliamentary election begins tomorrow..

The Bharatiya Janata Party has offered the Rashtriya Lok Dal - which has substantial support among Jats and farmers in western UP - five parliamentary seats and two ministerial berths to get Jayant Chaudhary to dump Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party.

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.

Jayant Chaudhary, the Jat leader with a huge support base in western Uttar Pradesh and has formed an alliance with Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party, today refuted allegations that he might -- now or later -- change camp and side with the BJP.

The Rashtriya Lok Dal has ruled out any post-poll alliance with the BJP, enthused by reports that their traditional votebank in western Uttar Pradesh, the Jats, are angry with the BJP and may return to fold. The Jat support had swung to the BJP in 2014 Lok Sabha elections following the Muzzaffarnagar riots, and the RLD - which had won 9 seats in 20...

It's been a busy day for Vinod Rathi. He had a single-point agenda on Uttar Pradesh's first day of voting: as a member of the Jat Sabha, to go to as many homes as possible and get the community to vote. The Jats, who form 17 per cent of voters in areas like this one, abandoned their traditional choice, Ajit Singh and his Rashtriya Lok Dal, to vote ...

Polling was held in 73 assembly constituencies in western Uttar Pradesh on Saturday in the first of seven phases of what is billed as a semi-final before the 2019 national election. A turnout of 64.2 per cent was recorded, 3 per cent better than that registered in 2012 state elections. The pressure is on the BJP which swept the region in the 2014 n...

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...

Western Uttar Pradesh, which votes on Saturday, may well prove to be the BJP's Achilles Heel in the crucial battle to capture the Hindi heartland state.

Jats, seared by Muzaffarnagar riots, feel Ajit Singh may be spent force, consider backing BJP

Ajit Singh and his Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) may have been scorned by Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi and abruptly ejected out of the gathbandan (alliance), but in Western Uttar Pradesh, the Jats, aggrieved with the BJP, are relocating their support.

Opportunities, not reservation, is what's needed, said a top leader of the BJP's ideological parent, the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh or RSS today, which is likely to cause the party some burn, given that key states including Uttar Pradesh vote in the next few weeks.

In less than a month, voting in Uttar Pradesh will begin with the western part of the state, and it is here, in Muzaffarnagar, that Jat leaders held a huge meeting over a week ago to discuss who they will support. It will not be the BJP, their leaders announced, to an audience of thousands who had gathered from six different states including Haryan...

The Jats of Uttar Pradesh, mainly concentrated in the western flank of the state, have decided to launch an agitation to demand reservation in central institutions and jobs in the state.

The voters of eight Lok Sabha constituencies in western Uttar Pradesh, falling in the Jat and sugarcane belt, are set to exercise their constitutional right as polling for the first phase of the seven-phase parliamentary election begins tomorrow..

The Bharatiya Janata Party has offered the Rashtriya Lok Dal - which has substantial support among Jats and farmers in western UP - five parliamentary seats and two ministerial berths to get Jayant Chaudhary to dump Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party.

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.

Jayant Chaudhary, the Jat leader with a huge support base in western Uttar Pradesh and has formed an alliance with Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party, today refuted allegations that he might -- now or later -- change camp and side with the BJP.

The Rashtriya Lok Dal has ruled out any post-poll alliance with the BJP, enthused by reports that their traditional votebank in western Uttar Pradesh, the Jats, are angry with the BJP and may return to fold. The Jat support had swung to the BJP in 2014 Lok Sabha elections following the Muzzaffarnagar riots, and the RLD - which had won 9 seats in 20...

It's been a busy day for Vinod Rathi. He had a single-point agenda on Uttar Pradesh's first day of voting: as a member of the Jat Sabha, to go to as many homes as possible and get the community to vote. The Jats, who form 17 per cent of voters in areas like this one, abandoned their traditional choice, Ajit Singh and his Rashtriya Lok Dal, to vote ...

Polling was held in 73 assembly constituencies in western Uttar Pradesh on Saturday in the first of seven phases of what is billed as a semi-final before the 2019 national election. A turnout of 64.2 per cent was recorded, 3 per cent better than that registered in 2012 state elections. The pressure is on the BJP which swept the region in the 2014 n...

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...

Western Uttar Pradesh, which votes on Saturday, may well prove to be the BJP's Achilles Heel in the crucial battle to capture the Hindi heartland state.

Jats, seared by Muzaffarnagar riots, feel Ajit Singh may be spent force, consider backing BJP

Ajit Singh and his Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) may have been scorned by Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi and abruptly ejected out of the gathbandan (alliance), but in Western Uttar Pradesh, the Jats, aggrieved with the BJP, are relocating their support.

Opportunities, not reservation, is what's needed, said a top leader of the BJP's ideological parent, the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh or RSS today, which is likely to cause the party some burn, given that key states including Uttar Pradesh vote in the next few weeks.

In less than a month, voting in Uttar Pradesh will begin with the western part of the state, and it is here, in Muzaffarnagar, that Jat leaders held a huge meeting over a week ago to discuss who they will support. It will not be the BJP, their leaders announced, to an audience of thousands who had gathered from six different states including Haryan...

The Jats of Uttar Pradesh, mainly concentrated in the western flank of the state, have decided to launch an agitation to demand reservation in central institutions and jobs in the state.