New Delhi: Four young men and women – aged 25 to 31 – carry the weight of advancing their respective political lineage but they also represent hope for the Opposition on as many seats in Uttar Pradesh in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Young, well-educated and well-versed in socialist politics, they have added new energy to this election – the average age of MPs in the 17th Lok Sabha, according to a report by PRS Legislative Research, was 54.
Iqra Hasan (29), Shreya Verma (31), Priya Saroj (25) and Pushpendra Saroj (25) will make their electoral debut this season as candidates of the Samajwadi party. Hasan, the daughter of former MPs Munawwar Hasan and Tabassum Hasan, has been fielded in Kairana in west Uttar Pradesh. Verma, the granddaughter of former cabinet minister and Kurmi (OBC) leader Beni Prasad Verma, is the SP’s candidate in Gonda. Priya Saroj is contesting in Machhlishahr, where her father and former MP, Tufani Saroj, is a sitting MLA. Pushpendra Saroj, the son of senior Dalit leader Indrajeet Saroj, a sitting MLA and former state minister, has been fielded from Kaushambi. These are all seats that the Opposition has a realistic chance of winning.
‘Saving the constitution’ has been an important element of their election campaign as they take on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
In 2019, the BJP won all of these four seats. The margin of victory in Machhlishahr was perhaps the thinnest anywhere in the country – 181 votes. The BJP has fielded sitting MP B.P. Saroj (63) from this reserved seat, which comprises four Assembly segments in Jaunpur and one in Varanasi. Pitted against BP Saroj is Priya Saroj, who turned 25 last November.
“The BJP wants to finish the Opposition. If it comes back to power, it will change the basic structure of the constitution for sure,” Priya, a law graduate, told The Wire soon after she was declared the candidate on April 14, celebrated across the country as Ambedkar Jayanti.
Priya completed her schooling in Delhi and graduated from Delhi University before securing an LLB degree from Amity University, Noida. She says her campaign will be focused on highlighting BJP’s politics against the constitution and why it is necessary to “save the constitution”.
“The BJP has misused government agencies to a new level and the constitution of the country is under threat. From open platforms, they are talking of changing the constitution,” said Priya.
Among the youngest candidates in this election, Priya also criticises the BJP for creating the bogey of Hindu insecurity. “Hindus don’t need to prove if they are real or fake. Why do we need to prove if we are Hindu? We have had Hindu PMs since Nehru’s time but how come ‘Hindu khatre mein’ is brought up after you (Modi) come to power,” she asked.
Also read: Why BJP’s Claim it Will Win All 80 Seats in Uttar Pradesh Is Very Far-Fetched
Priya also wants to highlight the unemployment issue faced by the youth today and debunk the BJP’s propaganda on showcasing the distribution of free ration to the poor as a major achievement and sign of public welfare.
“Providing ration to people is a basic right provided by the constitution. They had to provide free ration to people because they have not been able to deliver on their promise of giving jobs to the youth,” she said.
Like Priya, Pushpendra Saroj is also a Dalit (Pasi sub-caste). He has a bachelor’s degree in accounting and business management from Queen Mary University in London. In 2024, he is out to avenge his father Indrajeet Saroj’s defeat at the hands of the BJP MP Vinod Sonkar. In 2019, Sonkar had defeated the senior Saroj by less than 39,000 votes. After a long career in Ambedkarite politics with the BSP, Indrajeet Saroj, a five-time MLA, joined the SP ahead of the 2019 election.
“Today, BJP people are trying to murder the thought of Babasaheb [Ambedkar] and from public platforms talk about changing his constitution. Let’s take a vow…if we don’t fight today, there will be no fight left to fight in the future,” said Pushpendra at an Ambedkar Jayanti event in Kaushambi.
Pushpendra was referring to the controversial statements made by a senior BJP leader and MP from Faizabad, Lallu Singh, who in an undated video, which is being widely circulated now, is heard saying that to amend the Constitution or to draft a new one, the BJP would require a two-thirds majority in Parliament.
“The government can be formed even with 272 MPs. But to amend the constitution or to make a new one, we need a two-thirds majority,” Singh is heard saying at a small public meeting.
Reacting to Singh’s comment, SP president Akhilesh Yadav accused the BJP of wanting to finish off reservations by making a new constitution. “BJP wants to win not for the service or welfare of the people but to change the constitution made by Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar. For centuries, 4-5% of people with dominant thinking have wanted to keep 90-95% of the population as their slaves. That is why this time the backward, Dalit and minorities will together defeat the BJP and save the constitution and reservation,” Yadav said on X.
In Kaushambi, the sitting BJP MP Vinod Sonkar, 54, has dismissed the SP candidate as a “bachha” or kid. Pushpendra, who turned 25 just last month, tried to counter-attack by projecting himself as the “bachha” or child of Kaushambi. “All the people of Kaushambi are my family. I am their bachha,” said Pushpendra at a public meeting.
In the 2022 UP Assembly, Pushpendra had campaigned for his father. Iqra Hasan and Shreya Verma, who are also contesting their first election, had also campaigned in the 2022 state election. Shreya had campaigned for her father Rakesh Verma, who eventually lost from the Kursi seat in Barabanki by a thin margin of 217 votes. Iqra had extensively campaigned for her brother Nahid Hasan after the Yogi Adityanath government had jailed him. Nahid is a sitting MLA from the Kairana Assembly.
In 2019, the SP had fielded Iqra’s mother Tabassum Hasan in the Kairana Lok Sabha seat but she lost to the BJP’s Pradeep Chaudhary (55), who like the Hasan family, hails from the Gurjar OBC community. Iqra’s father Munawwar Hasan, grandfather Chaudhary Akhtar Hasan as well as mother Tabassum have been elected MPs in the past. Iqra, who has displayed a soft-spoken nature during campaigning, completed her schooling from the Queen’s Mary School in New Delhi. In 2012, she graduated in Arts from the Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University. She has also studied abroad – MA in International Politics and Law from SOAS University, London.
In Gonda, in east UP, the SP is relying on debutant Shreya Verma, who studied at Welhams Girls School in Dehradun before graduating in Economics from Ramjas College, Delhi University. She is the vice president of the SP’s women’s wing and has tried to connect with the women voters during her campaigning in rural areas. Her opponent is sitting MP Kirti Vardhan Singh, 58, who is older than her father, former minister Rakesh Verma.
Priya Saroj says that as she enters campaigning mode, she would appeal to the youth like her to come forward and “vote for their future.”
Dynasty politics is endemic to Indian political and electoral life. All parties, including the BJP, have been known to field candidates whose parents have been parliamentarians or legislators. Priya Saroj, Shreya Verma, Iqra Hasan and Pushpendra Saroj are no exception. However, if they win, they would not only add freshness to the next Lok Sabha but also dent the saffron party’s tall claims of winning all 80 seats in UP.
