As Iqra Hasan’s car drives towards the makeshift tent that has been assembled at Unchagaon for her election sabha, women from an adjacent rooftop start showering rose petals before disappearing into the house. One young man shouts a slogan which ends with “Vote for Iqra,” only to be admonished by an elder, “call her Iqra behan”.
It is easy to see why Iqra Hasan, the Samajwadi Party candidate from Kairana Lok Sabha, cuts such a compelling figure here – a 28-year-old Muslim woman, commanding the attention of more than 200 men. They are almost all Hindus, several of them influential village leaders, pradhans from nearby villages, who have gathered here to pledge their support for her electoral victory.
Prominent Kashyap leader from the Samajwadi Party, Kiran Pal Kashyap with Iqra Hasan, Madanpur village, Kairana. Photo: Radhika Bordia
In the current political climate fostered by the BJP, her candidature is a sign of how the opposition has learnt some long overdue lessons in western UP. Faced with a BJP incumbent who is unpopular because of his lack of accessibility, the SP is trying to take away the two main planks of the BJP’s success here: a communal divide and a stronghold on the EBC vote.
Across the field from where the sabha is being held is a piece of land which has been earmarked by the government as a site for a Provincial Armed Constabulary camp and a firing range. The demand for this camp came from Hukum Singh, the BJP MP from Kairana, whose Lok Sabha victory in 2014 was evidence of how successfully the riots of 2013 had broken the caste unity between Muslim and Hindu Jats and Gujjars. This unity had been a persistent obstacle to the BJP coming to power in western Uttar Pradesh.
Stoking the communal fires, Hukum Singh had conjured up an “exodus” of Hindus who had been facing a threat from the Muslims. This was not a claim borne out on the ground but one which got more than its due traction.
After his death in 2018, shortly before the Kairana Lok Sabha by-election, chief minister Adityanath announced the establishment of the PAC camp and firing range and tweeted, “Today no one dares scare away anyone from Kairana and Kandhla”.
While no work ever started at the site, curiously and not unexpectedly, earlier this month, Dainik Bhaskar reported that the administration had called for tenders for the construction, work on which would start shortly after the elections. Gestures such as this, each minor in themselves, is how the BJP keeps such issues alive. Kairana goes to the polls tomorrow, April 19.
This time the election won’t be about Hindu-Muslim
Jagat Singh Gujjar, a farmer who lives close to the land earmarked for the PAC site, says he knows little about the camp. He has walked across to attend Iqra’s election sabha. He says he and his family are “fans” of Iqra, “Iqra is a Muslim but she’s also the beti (daughter) of a Chaudhary, the beti of Munavar Hasan. Unchagaon will vote for her.”
Before I could ask him the next question, he went on to say, “This time the election will not be about Hindu-Muslim.” Standing next to him, Naved Chaudhary, a lawyer, says, “We are also Gujjars, the BJP’s communal politics divided us. We are hoping Iqra’s victory will reunite brothers.”
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
Her family is deeply rooted in the politics of this region. The Hasans are seen as political royalty in Kairana. A prominent landowning Muslim family, Iqra’s father, Chaudhary Munavar Hasan, was both an MLA and a MP from Kairana. He died at a young age in 2008 and his wife, Begum Tabassum Hasan, contested and won the Kairana seat in the 2009 general elections on a BSP ticket, defeating Hukum Singh.
Things changed after the communal violence in Muzaffarnagar, enabling Hukum Singh, a riot accused, to win the seat in 2014. His death led to a bye-election in 2018 which she won, defeating Hukum Singh’s daughter Mriganka Singh. A year later, she lost to BJP’s Pradeep Chaudhary. Her brother, Nahid, won the Kairana assembly by-election in 2014, when Hukum Singh was elected to Parliament, and won again in 2017 and 2022. Nahid has several cases against him and was even incarcerated by the BJP government under what the family and the party claim are trumped up charges.
What drives Iqra’s campaign
Iqra has a Bachelor’s degree in History from Delhi’s Lady Shri Ram College, a law degree from Delhi University and a Masters in International Law and Politics from SOAS. She was set to pursue a PhD. “I grew up with politics but entering it was not my plan. I always thought I’d be too shy for politics,” she tells us as she makes her journey from Uchagaon to her next election sabha.
When COVID struck she returned to Kairana and came into the limelight when she worked on her brother’s campaign.
Subhas Chand, a trader and BJP voter, praises Iqra’s conduct. “She is able to say tough things without sounding aggressive.” She has also been able to connect to the women. After each sabha, she visits homes to meet the women who stay indoors. She is always eager to discuss politics with them as in this patriarchal society, some women cannot do so in public.
Away from the public gaze, women always want to meet Iqra, in Unchagaon Kairana. Photo provided by author
Even so, much of what drives Iqra’s campaign is not just about her as an individual but about the interlinking of caste and community that defines politics here. The same farmer, Jagat Singh who speaks of being a “fan” of Iqra tells us that the reason most people in his village will vote for Iqra is because their choice for the candidate from Kairana, Manish Chaudhary, was not given the vote.
Another resident, who would have preferred Hukam Singh’s daughter to get the BJP ticket, says, “Pradeep Chaudhary may be a Gujjar but he’s done little for us, we haven’t even seen his face. Iqra is a better candidate.”
Iqra picks up on this, “I know I shouldn’t be saying this from this platform but when I was travelling across this region, many of you said you would vote for your daughter, if two people were not given a ticket.” She pauses as the audience laughs and begins to clap, before continuing, “Those two people have been denied a ticket, so now it’s your daughter who has the first right on your votes. I have come to assert that haq (right)”
She tells us later, “I know it may not sound feminist to some people to hear beti or behan but these are important identities and a lot of progressive change can come about even while invoking these identities.”
Her campaign is gaining from the local resentment against the incumbent BJP candidate Pradeep Chaduhary, a Gujjar, who has been a three-time MLA from Gangoh, an assembly segment which falls in Saharanpur district. Even communities expected to back the BJP fully are voicing their discontent at his candidature.
The electoral landscape in Kairana
In Gohorni village, a group of five Jats seated around their hookahs, have their own assessment of the situation. They all admit the BJP MP is not popular but a few of them say they will vote for Modi. But two others disagree. Chander Veer Singh is certain Iqra is going to win as “30% of the Jats will vote for her.” Vikrant echoes this sentiment, “Pradeep Chaudhary is unpopular, he never comes for any occasion.”
Discussing Jat politics in Gohorni, Kairana. Photo: Radhika Bordia
The Jat voters and the RLD tie-up with the BJP has changed the electoral equations on the ground. In the last election, as part of its work on the EBCs, a key BJP strategy was to pit these communities against the Jats. In 2019, many from the marginalised communities saw the RLD as a Jat party they could never vote for, while the BJP was the party which promised them recognition, protection and greater representation.
The SP, if somewhat belatedly, has woken up to this fact. Kiran Pal, a prominent leader from the Kashyap community, has been appointed an MLC by the party and is in the thick of the campaigning. We catch him at his home in Chaudhary Charan Singh colony in Kairana town, where a large picture of Mulayam Singh is placed next to the puja room.
“The problem with the way western Uttar Pradesh is analysed comes from the undue attention given to the Jats and the Gujjars,” he tells us.
“The media keeps calling it “Jat land” or “Gujjar-dominated”, but take Kairana Lok Sabha, the Jat population is just a little over one lakh and Gujjars are even less. The Kashyap population is almost two lakhs. People simply don’t factor in the thought processes and politics of castes such as ours,” he points out in a complaint that finds an echo among almost all the most backward communities.
Kashyap has been campaigning across the assembly segments of Kairana, going into Saharanpur and neighbouring Muzaffarnagar. He has been tasked with working on the votes of “not just the Kashyaps, but also the Sainis, who alone number another lakh here, Prajapati, and all those who identify as ati pichra. They will rally behind a man from their position.”
He says that there is a shared feeling that the “BJP has merely been using our community, it has taken Kashyap votes but given them no representation, people are angry”.
He concludes by pointing to the redoubled efforts of the BJP in this constituency. “Amit Shah has been here, Modi rallied here and Adityanath has come more than once, aren’t these signs of worry?”
Jhinjhana, in Shamli district, is a largely Kashyap settlement. From ward members to the chairman of the Nagar Panchayat, most of the local representatives are Kashyaps.
At the home of the chairman Suresh Pal Kashyap, who is from the BJP, some of his own relatives echo the feeling of being cheated. “We cannot say it ourselves as we are connected to the BJP, but people ask why the BJP has given so many tickets to the Jats and none to a Kashyap or anyone from an extremely backward caste,” says Rahul Kashyap who has a chaat stall in the market and is close to the chairman. Sitting next to him, Gopal Kashyap adds, “Will our position in politics always be of those at the lower levels, where we serve water and help organise events?”
Iqra is aware of the difference the Kashyap and the larger EBC votes can make. “The Kashyap community is a large one and a big part of the population but they have never been given their due participation. They have merely been exploited. We are trying to change that. Our party had three MLC seats, one was given to a former minister from our district, Kiran Pal Kashyap. We are telling people that we had three positions and we gave one to a Kashyap but the BJP had ten and it hasn’t given even one to a Kashyap.”
The most backward castes are moving away from the BJP
Virender Kashyap, the BSP’s election in-charge (chunaav prabhari) from Kairana draws out the electoral landscape in Kairana, “Except for the city, nagar palika, the more urban areas where the BJP still has its hold on the upper castes, this Hindu-Hindu politics is losing its traction among a large section of the most backward castes.”
“What the most backward communities see,” he elaborates, is that “the ticket in Muzaffarnagar has gone to a Jat, in Kairana to the unpopular sitting MP who is a Gujjar. The most backward castes are moving away from the BJP.”
The BSP candidate from Kairana, Shripal Rana, is a thakur (Rajput). The Thakur population is less than 50,000, and he will get the loyal Jatav vote but Virender Kashyap admits that if the party had put up a EBC candidate, Rana’s chances would have been better. Rana’s share of the Jatav and Thakur vote only helps Iqra.
None of this is lost on the BJP. Recognising its weaknesses, the party has been working hard to try and curtail the damage. A recent Saini sabha concluded with the decision to vote for Iqra, but within a few days, the BJP called their own Saini sabha to persuade the community to vote for the BJP.
Virender Kashyap told us that on April 16, the party managed to get the backing of Dharam Singh Saini, “The Kashyap and the Saini feel comfortable with each other, so this will could once again prevent some the move of these communities from the BJP to the SP.”
And across the villages, it is evident the BJP’s work is not so easily undone.
Ram Kumar Jogi tells us his community will always vote for Modi, Gujjarpur Village, Kairana. Photo: Radhika Bordia
If the larger EBC communities show a churning, there are many other communities, individually small in number, but collectively still significant. At Gujjarpur village in Kairana district, the Jogi settlement consists of just a few homes. In the courtyard-like space, on two charpoys, an elderly woman and man speak to us. “All of us voted for the BJP last time, and we will do so again. When I ask them why, the answers are familiar, “Gunda gardi khatm ho gayee, ab masti se so rahey hai (Crime and extortion have ended; now we sleep easy).”
In this contested terrain, Iqra Hasan is aware of the enormous sense of hope her candidature carries. For now, going into the first phase of the elections, she’s one of just six Muslim candidates contesting in Uttar Pradesh – even the Samajwadi Party has only given four tickets – and the only Muslim woman, “It’s unfortunate, the figures tell their own story. It also places a huge responsibility on me. There has been a huge religious divide, of the kind I never saw growing up. My attempt here and effort is to bring everyone together which is why I have campaigned extensively in the non-Muslim villages so that they can connect to me and I to them. This is what the area needs most”.
