New Delhi: Ten constituencies in Uttar Pradesh voted on May 7 amid swelling caste tension between the dominant Thakur community and the backward caste Yadavs, both of whom consider themselves Kshatriyas or warriors.
Several of these seats are considered stronghold areas of the Samajwadi Party’s ruling family, the Yadavs of Saifai. Those in the fray include SP president Akhilesh Yadav’s wife Dimple Yadav (Mainpuri), and his cousins Akshay Yadav (Firozabad) and Aditya Yadav (Budaun).
In Mainpuri, Dimple Yadav, the daughter-in-law of the late Mulayam Singh, faced the challenge of a BJP state minister Jaiveer Singh, a Thakur. Dimple Yadav was born into a Thakur family but identifies by her husband’s Yadav identity.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
The contest took a heated turn when on Saturday the BJP accused the SP of insulting Maharana Pratap after several SP workers climbed atop a statute of the Rajput icon in Mainpuri after the conclusion of a massive roadshow by Akhilesh Yadav in favour of his wife. “Jai Shiva Sardar ki, Jai Maharana Pratap Ki,” the SP workers shouted as they tried to plant party flags on the statue in Karhal.
Even as the BJP accused the SP of insulting Pratap, police lodged a first information report (FIR) against over 100 SP workers on charges of attempting to vandalise the statue. Three persons, all Yadavs, were later arrested. That’s not where it ended. A video, widely shared on social media, showed a bunch of men, allegedly Thakurs linked to the BJP, cleansing the statue with a water tanker to symbolically purify it while hurling sexist and casteist abuses at the Yadav caste. The vulgar language used by them cannot be reproduced here. Another video showing some alleged BJP workers sexually abusing Dimple Yadav also created outrage among the SP. Police said they would take action after investigating the videos.
Shiv Kumar Yadav, national president of a Yadav group, Yadav Sena, appealed to chief minister Yogi Adityanath and the Election Commission of India to take note of the abuses hurled at his community by Thakurs in Mainpuri. Referring to the cleansing of the Maharana Pratap statue, Shiv Kumar said this was done by those belonging to Adityanath’s case because of their “hate for the Yadav community and Akhilesh Yadav.” “These are the same people who purified the CM residence (in Lucknow in 2017) after (Akhilesh Yadav’s) tenure as CM. Because in their view, Akhilesh Yadav is a Shudra. Maharana Pratap’s statue became impure after Akhilesh Yadav and Dimple Yadav touched it,” said Shiv Kumar. The Yadav Sena chief warned that if action was not taken against those who insulted the community, “if the Yadavs retaliated, they would be called as goondas.”
A similar controversy occurred in Kannauj, where Akhilesh Yadav is himself contesting. After Akhilesh visited the Siddhapeeth Baba Gauri Shankar Mahadev Temple to offer prayers during his campaign, a video circulated on social media showing some men, allegedly linked to the BJP, washing the temple premises. Kannauj votes on May 13 but such events are bound to influence opinion in the Yadav family stronghold that voted on May 7.
Adityanath was quick to latch on to the controversy between the two castes. Addressing a rally in Shahjahanpur, Adityanath accused the SP of trying to “desecrate” the statue of “national hero” Maharana Pratap.
“SP’s goondas climbed atop the statue and tried to break his spear, Maharana Pratap’s aan, baan aur shaan (honour, pride and prestige),” said Adityanath. He accused the SP workers of abusing the statue, even though videos online showed them paying tribute to the Rajput ruler.
“[We] must tell these progeny of Akbar and Aurangzeb that this is Naya Bharat. And Naya Bharat will not tolerate the insult of our national heroes,” said Adityanath.
The UP CM also issued a warning to his opponents. “Whenever elections are here, these goondas get restless. (Goondo ki garmi chadne lagti hain). When the election results are announced, their garmi will also subside (become shant) gradually,” said Adityanath.
Akhilesh Yadav chose to not get fully drawn into the controversy. Responding to questions by the media, he accused the BJP of trying to divert attention from the main issues and circulating a muted video clip of the statue incident as “part of a conspiracy.” Akhilesh said that some “mindless” workers climbed atop the statue but there was no attempt to insult Maharana Pratap. “We view Maharana Pratap’s valour, contribution and courage with good emotions. The BJP finds politics in everything,” said Akhilesh. He asked why the police was yet to take action against those who used offensive language against women to target the SP but sent to jail his party workers.
The third phase of voting in UP took place after the BJP faced protests by the Thakur-Rajput community in the first two rounds. In the 10 seats that voted on May 7, two seats, Mainpuri and Firozabad, witnessed a Yadav versus Thakur battle. In Mainpuri, Dimple Yadav faced Jaiveer Singh, while in Firozabad Akshay Yadav was up against the BJP’s Thakur Vishwadeep Singh, who had stood third on a BSP ticket in 2014. In Budaun, another Yadav family bastion, Shivpal Yadav’s son Aditya Yadav faced a Shakya (OBC) candidate Durg Vijay Singh Shakya.
The third round of voting was a test for the SP to reclaim the ground it lost to the BJP in 2019, when it ceded both the Budaun and Firozabad seats (along with Kannauj). While Dimple Yadav lost in Kannauj, Akshay Yadav was defeated in Firozabad and Dharmendra Yadav, another cousin of Akhilesh Yadav, lost from his constituency Budaun. Akhilesh’s uncle Shivpal Yadav was then not on good terms with him. In Firozabad, it was Shivpal who caused Akshay Yadav’s defeat after he cut over 90,000 votes. This time, however, the Yadav family has reconciled its internal differences and actively campaigned for each other. Addressing a rally in Budaun, Akhilesh Yadav spoke about how he had carried his cousin Akshay Yadav in his arms. The Yadavs also evoked the legacy of Mulayam Singh, the SP founder and Yadav family patriarch, who died in 2022.
Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP’s chief campaigner, could not but refer to Mulayam during his campaign in Etawah. Addressing a rally there, Modi started his speech by mentioning how in the last Parliament session before the 2019 Lok Sabha election, Mulayam had expressed hope that Modi would be elected as PM again. Modi remembered it as Mulayam’s “ashirwad” for him, as he tried to reach out to the Yadavs who live there in large numbers. As reported earlier by The Wire, in this election the BJP is trying to pitch the Yadav community against the Yadav family of SP, by trying to exploit the fact that the SP has fielded only Yadavs from Mulayam Singh Yadav’s family.
Akhilesh Yadav responded to the cleaning of the temple premises in Kannauj, calling it an act of desperation by the BJP.
