Troubles For BJP's Sanjeev Balyan In Muzaffarnagar: Rajput Ire And Divided Jat, OBC Voters

Muzaffarnagar is going to polls just a couple of days later in the first phase of Lok Sabha elections on 19 April but reports suggest that the discontent among Thakur voters (Rajputs) against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has not yet been pacified.

Even yesterday (16 April), there was a Thakur mahapanchayat in the Khera village of Muzaffarnagar where the issue of BJP not giving enough tickets to Rajput candidates in western Uttar Pradesh was raised.

BJP candidate from Muzaffarnagar is Union Minister of State, Sanjeev Balyan, who is seeking a third straight term. He belongs to the Jat community and is facing the opposition of Rajputs who expected a candidate from their community in Muzaffarnagar.

Troubles for Balyan stem from the 2022 UP Assembly elections when the then Sardhana MLA Sangeet Som, of the Rajput community, lost to a Samajwadi Party (SP) candidate.

Sardhana is one of the assembly segments under the Muzaffarnagar Parliamentary constituency. It is known for the presence of Rajputs and has 24 major Rajput villages.

Som and his supporters believed that it was due to a lack of support from Balyan that the then Sardhana MLA lost as the two leaders had personal differences previously as well.

This time Som's supporters were expecting that the former Sardhana MLA would be compensated for the loss by being given the Lok Sabha ticket. But when Balyan was repeated.

There have been many Thakur mahapanchayats since then asking the Rajput community to vote against the BJP.

Seeing these developments, Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath went to Sardhana last week to convince the voters and campaigned for Balyan. He urged them to forget personal differences and not be misled by caste politics.

The importance of Rajput votes can be understood from the fact that even former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh lost an election here in 1971 to CPI's Rajput candidate, Thakur Vijaypal Singh.

While the BJP fears losing Rajput votes in the constituency, the candidates fielded by the opposition parties are also expected to attract votes of other communities.

SP has fielded Harendra Malik who is also a Jat, like Balyan. He is the father of SP MLA from Charthawal — an assembly segment under Muzaffarnagar Lok Sabha seat — Pankaj Kumar Malik.

There are two major Khaps of Jats in the district. While the BJP candidate is associated with Balyan Khap, Malik has the support of Gathwala Khap, thus dividing the Jat votes.

Moreover, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate Dara Singh Prajapati is set to divide the OBC votes. Prajapati is one of the major OBC castes in the constituency.

While most OBC voters are expected to support the BJP, a large chunk of the estimated 1.25 lakh Prajapati voters could vote for the BSP candidate.

Balyan is facing these troubles even though the Jayant Chaudhary-led Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), which enjoys support among Jats and farmers, is now a part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

In the 2019 elections, Balyan won by a narrow margin of 6,500 votes against Jayant Chaudhary's father Ajit Singh. With RLD on his side this time, the road was expected to be easier but instead has turned out to be difficult due to the above-mentioned developments.

Whether the BJP will be able to cruise its way to victory in Muzaffarnagar despite the troubles will be known on 4 June when the results are declared.