Vishwas Chaudhary, an affluent farmer of the Jat Community in Western UP, says the move was long overdue and it will help BJP consolidate its position in the sugar belt. His views:
The Bharat Ratna award was a much awaited and genuine honour to the most popular farmers’ leader of the Jatland and a long pending demand of the people, particularly the agrarian community, in Uttar Pradesh. Though it should not be linked to any kind of vote bank politics, the decision is definitely going to further enhance the prospects of the ruling BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in this sugarcane belt.
However, in any case, if a voter changes his/her preference of voting in lieu of any kind of freebies or a demand (that is just), it is wrong. There is a wrong perception among political parties that by declaring or offering just ahead of elections, they could win over the hearts of the people and the voters to get the desired result.
If you recall, the previous UPA government, under Manmohan Singh, towards its last days, declared reservations for the Jat community in 2014 under Ch Ajit Singh’s pressure. However, it hardly made any impact on the results (of the 2014 elections) and the BJP overthrew it with a thumping and record breaking majority.
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As far as the Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Jayant Chaudhary’s swing of loyalty from Samajwadi Party to the BJP is concerned, it is a welcome move as it will benefit both the saffron group and the RLD. As a matter of fact, the golden days of the RLD were in 2009 when it contested the Lok Sabha election in alliance with the BJP and won five seats which is still a record for its electoral history.
Despite the fact that the SP had offered seven Lok Sabha seats to the RLD in these elections, it had started playing mischief since the last (2022) Vidhan Sabha elections. This new collaboration is definitely going to be a booster for the RLD as its alliance with the SP was in turmoil after the 2022 elections where the party did win nine seats but three of these were on the symbol of the Samajwadi and the RLD had little say in the process of selection and choice (of seats) for 2024.
In my opinion, The BJP-RLD combine will win with a landslide in two seats (Baghpat and Bijnore) plus a Rajya Sabha seat. The decision is definitely going to have a deep socio-political impact in the western UP as Jat voters dominated about 30 out of the 130-140 Assembly segments of the western UP and the combination will boost the political prospects of both parties in the region.
This new alliance could also be termed as more respectable and reliable (for the RLD and its voters) as there is no doubt that the NDA, led by the BJP, is going to form the third consecutive government at the Centre and the voter also tends to give the power in the hand of those who have the authority.
As told to Rajat Rai
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