Meerut: “I’m not voting for Akhilesh Yadav or the cycle. My vote is for my samaaj (caste),” said Babloo, a Jatav labourer in Meerut.
Despite his loyalty towards the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)’s cause and long-standing antagonism towards the Samajwadi Party (SP), in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, he is willing to vote for the SP simply because the party has fielded someone from his community.
Meerut, a major urban centre in west Uttar Pradesh, is the ultimate test of the SP’s PDA – Pichda, Dalit, Alpsankhyak – strategy. By fielding a Dalit woman and a former mayor to boot, Sunita Verma, in the general seat, the SP has shaken up the caste arithmetic here.
By “samaaj”, Babloo meant the Jatavs, the largest Dalit community in the state and a key player in west UP.
Verma is the wife of influential Jatav leader and former BSP MLA Yogesh Verma, one of the many Dalit politicians enrolled by the SP in the last few years as part of its attempt to expand its caste rainbow.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won the Meerut seat thrice in a row – in 2009, 2014 and 2019. Meerut also boasts of a long history and association with the RSS’s ideology, with a record of communal violence and tension.
However, in 2019, when the SP and BSP contested together, the BJP managed to defeat the opposition candidate Haji Yaqub Qureshi in a polarised contest by the thinnest of margins –4,729 votes.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
In 2024, the BJP dropped its sitting three-time MP Rajesh Agarwal and fielded Arun Govil, the actor-turned-politician known across the country for portraying Lord Ram on screen during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
With the INDIA bloc nominating Sunita Verma purely for her Dalit credentials, the battle in Meerut has turned into an intriguing contest between Hindutva of the BJP and the Dalit-Muslim experiment of the opposition.
With the BSP fielding a candidate from the influential Tyagi community, and given the high population of the party’s core Jatav voter base, the constituency has turned into one of the most thrilling three-cornered contests in the state.
The SP hopes it is able to convert more traditional BSP voters like Babloo into its fold.
“Yogesh is a good leader, he’s grounded. Most importantly, he’s from our caste. If tomorrow something comes up, we can go and knock on his doors. Even if he doesn’t help, at least he won’t chase us away,” said Babloo, a resident of Pallavpuram in the northern part of the city.
Another Jatav voter, Gaurav (27), who works in a private company, will also pick the SP’s candidate as he feels the BSP’s nominee Satyavrat Tyagi will not stand up for Dalits if he wins.
“I will vote for someone from my caste no matter which party fields him. The person should be from my area and my samaaj. The party doesn’t matter. If we vote for Tyagi and he wins, he will not hear us because he is not from our community,” said Gaurav.
Across Meerut, the SP’s candidate selection has galvanised a major section of the Jatav community, especially those who want to change the government.
Meerut has a vocal Dalit Ambedkarite population, which actively protested against the alleged dilution of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act on April 2, 2018.
Verma garnered a lot of sympathy for himself after the Yogi Adityanath government arrested him in connection with the violence during the Bharat bandh on April 2, 2018 and slapped the stringent National Security Act (NSA) against him.
Jatavs feel he was wronged and kept in jail for months because of his identity. They still hold resentment against the BJP government over the incident.
“Everyone knows Yogesh Verma. He is a fighter. They even booked him under the NSA. Nobody knows Satyavrat Tyagi,” said Lalaji, who runs a small food stall in Nai Basti Lalla Pura, a bustling neighbourhood with a huge population of Dalits, especially Jatavs.
Lalaji opened the stall after he suffered an accident and had to drop out of school in class 11. Like many here, he has not seen much change in his life in the last decade.
Apart from the caste background of the SP candidate, the party is also attracting voters disgruntled with the BJP government over inflation, unemployment and complicating life by making everything online.
A banner shows Sunita Verma, the SP candidate in Meerut. Photo: Omar Rashid.
A major concern of the Dalit youth is that the BJP is tampering with the constitution and might even change it if it returns to power.
Monu Gautam (32), a barber whose shop is adorned with images of B.R. Ambedkar, fears the BJP might scrap caste-based reservations.
“They should not change what’s written down. We must follow the constitution. They are changing things in it. What Babasaheb has said and done should be followed,” said Monu, also a Jatav.
While he is opposed to the BJP, he is also a BSP loyalist. His vote will go to the ‘haathi’ (elephant), the BSP’s symbol, regardless of the candidate.
It is this loyal base of Jatavs that is powering the Mayawati-led party’s campaign. How many of them shift to the SP, to a large extent, will determine how strong a fight the INDIA bloc is able to put up against the BJP.
Naresh Kumar, a pharmacist, said he would cast his vote on the basis of his jati. But he was quick to clarify, he meant the BSP, which represents his caste, and not the jati of the candidate.
“By caste, I meant party, not the caste of the candidate,” he said, declaring to vote for Tyagi and not Verma.
The BSP is banking on the consolidation of the Jatavs to attract the Muslims to its corner. The party feels Jatavs, Muslims and a section of Tyagis, considered core voters of the BJP, will put it in a strong position in a three-way fight.
The last time a Muslim candidate won from Meerut was in 2004. It was on a BSP symbol.
In 2014 and 2019, the BSP fielded Muslim candidates in Meerut but lost each time.
In 2009 and 2014, the SP candidate, Shahid Manzoor, a former minister, too was Muslim.
This time, both parties have fielded Hindus, posing a big challenge to the BJP’s so-far-successful strategy of polarising Hindu votes along communal lines.
Also read: Communal Identities Weigh Heavily on Candidates in UP’s First Phase of Lok Sabha Elections
In a recent rally in Meerut, Mayawati underlined the background of her candidate to reach out to the Tyagi Hindus as well as Muslims. She promised Muslims that if she came to power, she would bring an end to the “oppression” faced by the community in the name of “vengeful” Hindutva.
“We have fielded Muslims here on many instances. But it was the great desire of the Tyagi Brahmin samaj that the BSP give an opportunity to someone from their community to contest the election,” Mayawati said.
Mayawati, aware of her slipping support base among Jatavs, also warned Dalits against trusting the SP. She targeted the SP for opposing in the past reservation in promotions for SCs and STs.
“Can the SC/ST service class waste their vote by voting for a party that is trying to end your reservation?”, said Mayawati, reminding Dalits how the SP government in UP had changed the names of some parks, universities and districts she had named after Dalit icons during her rule.
Babu Lal, a Jatav who works in the defence service, was moved by Mayawati’s address in the rally.
“I was there,” he said, sipping tea in a small shop. “Behenji rightly pointed out that we want jobs, not free ration. Are five kilos of ration enough to fill your belly? On top of that, the BJP is changing the constitution,” said Lal.
A three-way contest, while running the risks of dividing the Muslim vote, also ensures that the BSP’s core voters stick to it, as many are not inclined to voting for the SP.
Devendra Kumar, a Jatav barber and BSP loyalist, also wants change. Using the example of a hair-cutting machine, he explained why it was important to vote out the Modi government this time.
“Earlier, we used to use the manual hair cutting machine. We moved on to electric machines and then to the battery-operated ones. Things must constantly change. That’s how we get better timing and finishing,” he said.
“The manual machine offered a mediocre hair-cut. The electric machine would cut fine, but work would come to a halt if there was a power cut. Then came the battery machine, which offers top-class cutting and timing.”
Also read: As Mayawati’s Influence Wanes, Samajwadi Party Courts Dalit Community
A dilemma faced by Jatav voters of the BSP is that even if they vote for a non-BSP party, they feel others would not believe them.
“If we vote others, they won’t even believe that we voted for them,” said Subash Gautam, a Jatav labourer who is still to make up his mind whether he would vote the INDIA bloc or the BSP.
“What I am sure about is that the BJP should not form the government,” he said, accusing the government of “oppressing” the poor and complicating their life by making every documentation online and causing loss of livelihood for those who have a hand-to-mouth existence.
However, there are many Jatavs who are enamoured by the BJP, especially its two leaders, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Yogi Adityanath.
Saurav Singh, who runs a sanitary items store near Maliyana, said the local candidates do not matter to him. “We will not consider the chote aadmi. We will directly look at the bade aadmi, who are running the country,” he said.
Singh praised the BJP for building highways and roads and providing Meerut with a metro rail. “We will foremost consider development,” he said.
Garment seller Satish Sagar, also a Jatav, said he received a pucca house under BJP rule and was happy that the Adityanath government finished off the “goondagardi” of Muslims, especially the infamous Sotiganj stolen auto-parts market, which Hindus here believe was dominated by the minority community.
“Three motorbikes belonging to me were stolen and taken there. All that has stopped,” said Sagar.
Communalism and caste antagonism are also big factors in keeping a section of Jatavs from drifting to the SP.
Kishan Pal, a Jatav farmer, brushes aside inflation as he justifies the rise in price of items by comparing it to the increase in the wages earned by labourers. He has no particular problem with Sunita Verma but is suspicious of the SP because it is led by a Yadav.
For three decades, the SP and BSP played out as political rivals in UP, creating suspicion among their core vote banks, Yadavs and Jatavs, for each other.
“Kharab party hain … Mulayam Singh. They are Yadav … they are into goondagardi,” said Pal, showcasing his disdain for the SP leadership.
The BJP’s arithmetic is powered by Hindutva, the mobilisation of “upper castes” and the scattered Dalit and backward caste votes. By fielding a celebrity Govil, who wears saffron on his sleeves, the BJP tried to add an element of novelty, and of course Ram, to its campaign in west UP, far from the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
A scene in Meerut showing a banner of BJP candidate Arun Govil. Photo: Omar Rashid.
However, Govil’s inaccessible nature, distant campaigning style and lack of experience in politics, with nothing to show for except his portrayal of Ram in the television series Ramayana, have prevented him from making the political breakthrough he was looking for.
He was even served a notice for seeking votes in the name of Ram.
The BJP’s strong urban Hindutva supporter base and Modi’s popularity as PM are what are driving Govil’s campaign.
That Govil, although born in Meerut, returned home after many decades away in the film industry, does not help his cause. His ‘outsider’ and non-political tags might deter fence-sitters or non-traditional BJP voters.
“Arun Govil lives in Mumbai. If we need to register a complaint, will we go to Mumbai?”, asked Pradeep Kumar, a Dalit labourer.
Rajesh Kumar, who runs a small kiosk, was also negative about Govil. “After 50 years, he returned to Meerut and held a roadshow. He was Ramji on screen. He forgets that he’s not Ram in real life. He’s only an actor,” said Kumar.
However, for the traditional BJP voter, none of these matter. Only the lotus symbol and Modi’s face count.
“The most important factor in this election is the security of the nation,” said a Brahmin shopkeeper.
“Modiji built roads, provided free ration to the poor, electricity and gas connections, toilets and pucca houses. The country is developing in all fields. Why should we not like Modiji?”, he asked.
The shopkeeper also downplayed Govil’s ‘outsider’ tag, saying that the incumbent MP, Agarwal, also barely visited his area during his three terms, but that doesn’t mean work didn’t happen.
Vinod Kumar Bhatnagar, who sells juice on a cart, said inflation was not a big deal for him as it was natural given the rise in population. He feels Hindus are safer under the BJP.
“[The others] embolden the Muslims. In 2013, so many Hindus were killed in the Kawal incident [Muzaffarnagar riots] under the Akhilesh Yadav government,” he said.
Shri Pal, a Gaderia (OBC), who sells watermelon, also downplayed the criticism against Govil for his unapproachable nature during his road shows.
“Koi bhi ao, hume vote deni hain Modi ko,” said Pal.
Muslims in the constituency seemed largely inclined towards the SP candidate, even though the BSP has tried to promote prominent Muslim leader and businessman Haji Yaqub Qureshi to attract the minority community.
A fruit vendor, Salim Khan, complained how the police under the BJP government harassed the poor and didn’t let them earn a living. He fondly recalled the rule of the SP and BSP, especially the mayoral tenure of Sunita Verma.
Near the Hapur bus stand, Naeem Ansari, who sells biryani, said the BJP was rattled by the changing equations and had to resort to polarising tactics.
“In the end, they have tried to make this a Hindu-Muslim election,” he said, referring to Modi’s communal speech about the Congress planning to distribute properties and the mangalsutras of Hindus to Muslims.
Sanjay Kumar, a Dalit, feels that the praise for the Modi government on building basic infrastructure was over the top.
“Why is it a big deal if a government builds roads? Every government is expected to do that. We won’t live in potholes, right? Gone are the days of cycles and carts, this is the era of cars,” said Kumar.
Naresh, a Jatav shopkeeper, said the free ration scheme flaunted by the BJP was akin to “giving alms”. “People want employment, not alms, he said.
A BSP loyalist, Naresh feels the SP-Congress candidate can defeat the BJP in Meerut. Besides, she is from his caste.
“When the BJP can harp about caste, we will also vote on caste. Besides, they don’t even consider us from the chota baradari as Hindu,” he said.
To crack the BJP’s narrative about welfare schemes to woo the marginalised Hindu communities, especially Dalits, Akhilesh Yadav has propped up the threats to the constitution.
“We want the guarantee of Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar’s constitution, not Modi’s guarantee. The constitution guarantees your honour and livelihood as well as reservation. We don’t want the BJP’s guarantee,” said Yadav in a rally in Meerut recently.
With Muslims and Jatavs, Yadav believes he has cracked the arithmetic in Meerut.
“Nobody can challenge you in samikaran (caste equation),” he told the crowd in Meerut, asking them to beware of the BJP’s attempts to lure voters with “fake guarantees”.
The Meerut election will decide the political fate of Govil, who even roped in his fellow actors Sunil Lahri and Dipika Chikhlia, who played Lakhsman and Sita alongside him in Ramayana, to campaign for him during a roadshow.
In 1991, Chikhlia was elected as MP on a BJP ticket in Baroda. Will Govil be as lucky?
In an appeal to voters before voting day, Govil asked them to press the lotus button to “establish Ram Rajya in the country.” But will Meerut choose its own Ram?
