The political chessboard for the by-elections to be held on 9 seats of Uttar Pradesh Assembly has been laid. SP and BSP are contesting on all 9 seats, while BJP itself is contesting on 8 seats and its ally RLD is trying its luck on one seat. SP was giving two seats to Congress in the by-elections, Khair and Ghaziabad. If Congress did not agree, Akhilesh Yadav has fielded his candidates on those two seats also, through which a new political experiment has been done.
BJP continues to rule the Khair assembly seats of Ghaziabad and Aligarh. In view of BJP’s political hold on both the seats, Congress had withdrawn its steps from contesting the by-elections. After this, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav has announced the names of his candidates on both the seats on Thursday evening, in which Charu Kain has been given ticket on Khair seat and Singh Raj Jatav has been given ticket on Ghaziabad seat.
Ayodhya like experiment in Ghaziabad
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav has made a political move on Ghaziabad assembly seat along with Ayodhya and Meerut Lok Sabha seat. In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Akhilesh had experimented with fielding Dalit candidates on general seats like Meerut and Faizabad, which was a hit. SP had fielded a Dalit candidate in the form of Awadhesh Prasad on the Faizabad Lok Sabha seat and Sunita Verma on the Meerut seat. SP was successful in giving tough competition to BJP on both these seats. In Ayodhya, SP’s Awadhesh Prasad had registered a landslide victory, while in Meerut, Sunita Verma had lost by very minor votes.
Repeating the political experiment of Faizabad, SP has given ticket to Singh Raj Jatav, who comes from Dalit community, on the Sadar seat of Ghaziabad Assembly. BJP has fielded Sanjeev Sharma playing the Brahmin card while BSP has placed its bets on Parmanand Garg who comes from the Vaishya community. In such a situation, SP has hit many birds with one stone by fielding a Dalit candidate on the general seat. Through this strategy, SP aims to garner Dalit votes along with Yadav and Muslims. Apart from this, the way they have given Jatav candidate is a direct indication of breach in Mayawati’s core vote bank. Ghaziabad seat has a large number of Dalit voters, if Singh succeeds in connecting with him through Raj Jatav, then the game of both BJP and BSP can get spoiled.
Well on the seat many birds with one stone
Akhilesh Yadav has made Charu Kane, who comes from Dalit community, a candidate for Khair assembly seat of Aligarh. Well the seat is reserved for Dalit community. SP was also giving this seat to Congress, but when it did not agree, Congress leader Charu Kane was fielded on the SP symbol. In this way, an attempt has been made to create a political balance with Congress, while on the other hand, there is a strategy to fail the mathematics of BJP-RLD alliance. Charu Kane belongs to Dalit community, but he is married in a Jat family. She is the daughter-in-law of former District Panchayat President of Aligarh Chaudhary Tejveer Singh alias Guddu.
Charu Kane had contested the 2022 assembly elections on BSP ticket. Even though she could not win, she was at number two. SP did not open much of its account on this seat whereas RLD managed to win in 2012. Khair seat is considered to be dominated by Dalits and Jats. Keeping this equation in mind, Akhilesh has fielded Charu Kane so that both Jat and Dalit votes can be consolidated. SP had given the seat in RLD quota in 2022, but now BJP and RLD are together.
SP has a strategy to create Dalit-Jat equation by making Charu Kain its candidate from Khair seat. Apart from this, SP is considering Muslims as its vote bank. There are close to one lakh Jat voters and around 57 thousand Dalit voters. There are 25 thousand Muslims. SP has made its bet from the point of view of these two votes. Although Charu had joined the Congress amid discussions about joining the Congress quota, the Congress backed out from contesting the elections and joined the SP. It remains to be seen how successful is SP’s political experiment on the seat?
