Muzaffarnagar (Uttar Pradesh): Set against tall sugarcane crops and dense wheat farms, Mundawali Khadar is a typical medium-sized village in western Uttar Pradesh. The gateways are massive – wide enough for farming vehicles to pass through – and where the doors are smaller, they grab our attention through the ornate floral designs and vibrant images of peacocks and Lord Shiva neatly coated on their surface.
On the façade of one such big, white building is a poster advertising a local bakery. Above its name is an image of Maharana Pratap, the medieval-era Rajput ruler considered an icon by his community for taking on the Mughals. And it is Maharana Pratap’s legacy that Deepak Kushwah, a young Rajput man, evokes as he explains why he is going to vote against the Bharatiya Janata Party in this election. Like all the Rajputs assembled on cots near the courtyard of this massive house, Kushwah admits that he voted for the BJP in previous elections. But this time, it is about samman (honour) and making the Rajput presence felt.
“The Kshatriya is fighting for samman (honour). Maharana Pratap fought for it. He never abandoned his clan. Indeed, he ate roti made of grass but saved his clan. We will also eat ghas ki roti and do the same,” said Kushwah. Eating ‘ghas ki roti’ is a metaphor that Kshatriyas use from Maharana Pratap’s life story to endure hardship while battling for a larger cause.
And it is this sudden expression of ‘pride’ and ‘honour’ from the dominant Rajput community that is bothering the BJP days ahead of the voting for the first phase of the 2024 Lok Sabha election. The community, landed and prosperous, is considered a loyal voter and ideological base of the saffron party.
A massive show of strength through a Kshatriya Swabhimaan Mahakumbh in Saharanpur on April 7 has triggered a wave of small meetings and panchayats of the Rajput community who have vowed to vote for the candidates best placed to defeat the BJP. Opposition leaders initially believed that the Rajput protests were engineered by the BJP to polarise other communities, much larger in voting numbers, towards it. However, on the ground, the Rajput resentment seems to be the result of simmering discontent over political representation and the BJP’s focus on increasing its support base among the other dominant landed communities, Jats and Gurjars, who are incidentally grouped under the Other Backward Classes in UP.
Anger against local leaders
In Muzaffarnagar, the Rajputs are hell-bent on ensuring the defeat of the BJP’s sitting MP and candidate, Union minister Sanjeev Balyan, who is a Jat. “We are not unhappy with [Narendra] Modi or Yogi [Adityanath]. We want Sanjeev Balyan out,” said Kunwarpal, a Rajput farmer.
The Rajputs accuse Balyan of only working for his caste. They also refer to a speech by him, made in December 2019, in which he is heard saying that only Jats are farmers, while other communities are labourers. “Hum hi toh hain kisan (We are the actual farmers),” Balyan said in 2019.
“Farmers and Jats are synonymous. Other communities are also into farming but a farmer is known by the Jat baradari, be it in any corner of the country. If anyone starts an andolan, you will find it is the Jat farmer doing it. Farmers live across the country, in Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, but nowhere will you see them fighting,” Balyan said then.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
It is for this speech that Ramvir Singh, another Rajput farmer, is unable to forgive Balyan and vote for the BJP. “He says only Jats are farmers. It’s like we are useless and jobless. We are in fact bigger farmers than Jats!” said Ramvir, shaking with fury. Arjun Singh, also a Rajput farmer, was even more scathing. “They (Jats) are living on Rajwada lands provided by Rajputs, and they are calling us farm labourers!”
While the anger of the Rajputs, who compete with the Gurjars and Jats for social and political dominance in this part of the country, was simmering over the last few years, it got a sudden push after a Union minister of the BJP, Parshottam Rupala, made controversial comments about Kshatriyas in Gujarat. Rupala triggered outrage and widespread protests, which are yet to subside, for his comment on Kshatriyas entering relationships of “roti-beti” (breaking bread and entering into marital relations) with the British.
The perceived insult of their past compounded the simmering discontent among the Rajputs here. At small meetings and panchayats held by Rajput community leaders in west UP, one slogan rings strong: Raghukul reet sada chali ayi, pran jaye par vachan na jaye. In simple language, this means that a Kshatriya will stay true to his word even at the cost of his life because this has been their tradition.
Why ‘Jatland’?
Changing caste politics in west UP, in the rich sugarcane and wheat belts, near the national capital, ever since the BJP came to power at the Centre in 2014 and in the state in 2017, have also antagonised the Rajputs.
“They are not giving us any attention. They are constantly putting us down,” said Satya Prakash, a Rajput. There is a wide range of complaints by the Rajputs against the BJP government, especially against BJP MP Balyan. Some are based on facts, others on conjectures and conspiracy theories. One narrative peddled by the Rajputs here is that in the recruitment process for police and army jobs, Jats were favoured at the cost of the Rajputs and other communities.
The BJP’s focus on Jats especially after the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots and in subsequent elections has not gone down well with the Rajputs.
Sunder Singh has an issue with the mainstream nomenclature of “Jatland” used for this part of west UP by the media as well as politicians.
“They keep calling it Jatland…Jatland. As if the other communities do not live here? Even the government has over-indulged them,” said Sunder. “There are 36 biradaris who live here, not one less. Jats have around two lakh votes. The other communities may be 10,000-20,000 less. In a constituency of 18 lakh voters, how does this become a Jatland?”
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The Rajputs are unhappy with the selection of candidates by the BJP. In Ghaziabad, the BJP dropped sitting MP and retired army general V.K. Singh, a Rajput, and fielded in his place a Bania, Atul Garg. In Kairana, the BJP has again fielded Pradeep Chaudhary, who Rajputs feel insulted their icon, 9th century Pratihara ruler Mihir Bhoj, by claiming him to be a Gurjar. The two communities have been engaged in an on and off war of words and show of strength over Mihir Bhoj’s contested legacy.
The BJP has fielded Thakur-Rajput candidates in Moradabad and Amroha but Rajputs here feel they are losing seats due to the high population of Muslims. As a damage control measure, the BJP nominated a minister, Jaiveer Singh Thakur, as candidate in Mainpuri but even that has backfired as the constituency is a Samajwadi Party stronghold that the BJP failed to breach even in 2014 and 2019.
In contrast, the BJP and its ally Rashtriya Lok Dal have fielded Jats in Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat, Mathura and Fatehpur Sikri, and Gurjars in Kairana and Bijnor, all in west UP.
Although the BJP government in UP is helmed by Adityanath, who was born a Kshatriya, local Rajputs feel their local representation, their bridge to Lucknow and Delhi, is shrinking. In 2017, the community had two popular Rajput MLAs – Suresh Rana and Sangeet Som – from the Muzaffarnagar-Meerut-Shamli region. However, both lost in 2022 and since then have been sidelined. Three out of the nine MLAs in Shamli and Muzaffarnagar are Jats. The state BJP president is also a Jat. On the other hand,there are only two Rajput MLAs in the 34 seats in Saharanpur, Meerut, Shamli, Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat, Gautum Buddha Nagar and Ghaziabad districts, which combine to form the epicentre of west UP. There is not a single sitting Rajput MLA in Baghpat, Shamli, Muzaffarnagar and Meerut districts.
Many Rajputs believe that Balyan conspired to defeat Rana and Som in 2022 by ensuring that the Jat votes did not go to them.
Both Modi and Adityanath made direct and subtle efforts to reach out to the Rajputs during election rallies and roadshows. Rajput leaders Som and Rana were even shown prominently on stage. However, not much has changed on the ground.
“We honour what Yogiji said. But we will vote as per our wishes. What did Yogiji give Sangeet Som and Suresh Rana, anyway?” asked Sunder Singh.
Balyan, Som and Rana rose to prominence for their role in instigating the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots, which was a big factor in communally polarising the 2014 Lok Sabha election. While Rana was awarded with a ministerial berth in 2017 and Balyan went on to become a Central minister, Som was left in the wilderness after his loss in 2022. Som and Balyan don’t see eye to eye.
“Sangeet Som sacrificed himself in the 2013 riots. If the BJP is so prominently placed today in the entire country, it is due to Sangeet Som. He lost his election but that doesn’t mean you bypass him. Keshav Prasad Maurya too lost his election but he was made a deputy chief minister,” said Sunder Singh.
A real change in votes?
Rajputs are not as big a numerical force as OBCs, Dalits and Muslims in this part of the state. They also do not have the political weight of Jats. However, their open rebellion has pushed the BJP on the backfoot, and provided the Opposition a much-needed boost to highlight the internal divisions in its vote bank. Yet, what are the realistic chances that the Rajput community, taken in by nationalism and Hindutva, will turn its back on the BJP?
This is difficult to assess. The BJP has presented itself as the sole custodian of Hindutva and fulfilled its promise of building a Ram Temple in Ayodhya on the land where the Babri Masjid stood for centuries. The Rajput anger also seems to be regarding the lack of local representation, and their need to be heard and seen, rather than political disenchantment or ideology.
But Satendra Kumar, a Rajput from Mundawali Khadar village, says the BJP has exhausted the Ram Mandir issue. “Since 1992, they have raised the issues of Ram Mandir and removing Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir. For these issues, the youth of the country voted BJP in 2014. It formed a full majority government and came to power again in 2019. Has the BJP taken the theka (contract) of running the government all our life? Are there no other parties?” asked Satender.
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He is also concerned about the shrinking Opposition in the country and the government’s attempts at eliminating that space. Satender feels that by teaching the BJP a lesson in 2024, the Rajputs can help strengthen the Opposition in the country. “We acted in national interest then and are acting in national interest today. We voted Modiji in national interest. And now we will work to make the Opposition strong. Modi will become PM. We are no one to defeat him. But this time we will make the Opposition strong.”
On April 15, while addressing a rally in Muzaffarnagar, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav referred to “insults” faced by the Rajputs in Gujarat and UP at the hands of the BJP and the heavy cost the saffron party was going to pay. “They have decided to wipe out the BJP,” said Yadav.
Eight constituencies in west UP will vote on April 19 – Pilibhit, Saharanpur, Kairana, Muzaffarnagar, Moradabad, Bijnor, Nagina and Rampur. The campaigning for phase 1 ends on April 17. With what sentiments the Rajputs enter voting day would also be determined by the impact of the Kshatriya Swabhimaan Mahapanchayat, called in Meerut on April 16 by Rajput leader Thakur Puran Singh. In the perception game, this does not look good for the BJP.
