Kaiserganj/Bahraich: “The government promises 18-hour electricity supply to villages but here, we can count the number of hours we get power supply. The proposed state university in Gonda has been shifted to Balrampur. The MP has only developed his educational institutions,” says Rinku Tiwari, an MA student from Kandhi Kuiyan village of Payagpur in Kaiserganj.
Comprising five assembly segments of Payagpur, Kaiserganj, Katra Bazar, Colonelganj, and Tarabganj, Kaiserganj is the stronghold of Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh who has won from here three times in a row.
Though the six-time MP received a setback after a Delhi court ordered police to frame charges including sexual harassment in the case by female wrestlers, youngsters like Tiwari and his friend Ganesh Pandey discuss about Brij Bhushan’s ‘dabdaba hai, dabdaba rahega (my dominance will remain)’ statement made after the Wrestling Federation of India elected his aide as the new chief in December.
The Rajput strongman wields enormous influence on Gonda and others districts, namely, Bahraich, Balrampur and Shravasti where he is known to launch zila panchayat chairpersons and block head candidates, thanks to his hold on local politics that is dominated by money and muscle power. This time, the BJP has fielded his younger son Karan Bhushan Singh in Kaiserganj.
“Such statements make no sense. There is no ill-feeling towards BJP here. They have given houses, Kisan Samman Nidhi, Ayushman cards. Lekin pratyashi bekar hai (But the candidate is useless),” says Shiv Bhushan Tiwari of Kandhi Kuiyan.
Till 2 May, BJP booth heads like Rakesh Tiwari of Kandhi Kuiyan were tasked with explaining the public about the extraordinary delay the party made in announcing its candidate and are now harping on the Modi-Yogi combination in their door-to-door campaigns and public meetings.
“We are only conveying to people the party’s message that their vote will go to Modi-Yogi and enumerate the schemes of the government,” Tiwari says
Villagers say that the controversy involving Brij Bhushan has no effect in their area but will impact the elections in UP’s neighbouring state of Haryana. The popularity of PM Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath coupled with the BJP’s Hindutva pitch has been helping the party’s case here like in other constituencies of Katra Bazar, Tarabganj and Colonelganj — all went to the BJP in the 2022 state polls. Only Kaiserganj went to the Samajwadi Party.
The Lok Sabha has a total of 19,07,000 voters with Brahmins comprising 19 percent, Dalits 28 percent, Muslims 15 percent, Thakurs 14 percent, Yadavs 9 percent and the rest include OBCs of which the Kurmis are the dominating caste.
Brij Bhushan’s representative Sanjeev Singh says that there are 875 gram sabhas in Kaiserganj and campaigning for Karan is “just a formality.”
A Brij Bhushan aide tells ThePrint that every gram sabha has 10 members “working for him” and that he has a base of former and currently-employed teachers along with alumni and students of the dozens of educational institutions that he runs across Gonda and Kaiserganj.
“If a candidate was changed, it would have impacted four districts of Gonda, Bahraich, Shravasti and Balrampur. The party could not risk that,” the aide says, boasting of the robustness of the ecosystem that the MP has built over four decades.
The brashness that is associated with Brij Bhushan became stark when he told ThePrint in an interview that there is no opposition to his family in Kaiserganj and that he is asking supporters not to waste their vote as his son becoming an MP was certain.
He dismissed a suggestion that the two Brahmin candidates fielded by the Samajwadi Party (Ram Bhagat Mishra) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (Narendra Pandey) might pose a challenge to his son. “Election here is not on the basis of caste or religion,” he says.
But the campaign speeches being delivered in his son’s campaign belie the claim and on ground, BJP supporters are doubling efforts to ensure the Brahmin vote doesn’t get divided this time when Kasierganj votes 20 May
At a gathering in Raipur Phakir village Thursday, BJP MLA Bawan Singh spoke about Ram temple while zila panchayat president Ghanshyam Mishra told people that Brij Bhushan was instrumental in making Brahmins like Seema Pandey, Brij Kishore Mishra and Daddan Mishra the zila panchayat chairpersons. Daddan Mishra is the SP candidate’s half brother.
While local BJP MLAs like Singh, Subhash Tripathi, Ajay Singh, Prem Narayan Pandey deliver long speeches to address campaign meets, Karan’s speeches are short and similar and he mentions his father in each of them.
At the public meeting in Raipur Phakir village, Karan referred to himself as a “son of the people” and said that he “won’t let his father’s absence be felt” — an often repeated line in most of his speeches.“This government is of Ram, kisan, gareeb.”
Also Read: Waited till Jat belt voted, says Opposition after BJP fields Brij Bhushan’s son from Kaiserganj
Murmurs of opposition
Back at Payagpur’s Kandhi Kuiyan, Shri Niwas Tiwari hints at the mood of the village which has 1,500 families out of whom only two are non-Brahmin. “This village has always been bhajpayi (influenced by BJP) but this time the ratio is 60 (BJP)-40 (Samajwadi Party),” he says.
Tiwari says that while voters here have traditionally voted for the BJP, that the SP has fielded Bhagat Ram Mishra, a Brahmin candidate from Bahraich’s Raipur Raja village, has changed the dynamics. “It’s a Brahmin candidate who stays nearby, so naturally some people will go for him.”
He complains about the rampant unemployment and that a third of the village’s young population has had to relocate in search of employment. “My elder son is here, but two of my younger sons are in Delhi and Arrah for work. One of them is an auto driver while the other works in a sugar mill in Arrah,” he says.
Payagpur assembly constituency was won by BJP’s Subhash Tripathi by a margin of about 12,000 votes.
Youngsters complain about the lack of a state university and an advanced medical facility apart from the prolonged power cuts.
Baccha Ram Paswan, SP district secretary of Bahraich, tells ThePrint that there are many villages of Payagpur where people are shifting towards the SP due to the Brahmin candidate.
“The party will not have any problem in Kaiserganj which is already with SP. In Payagpur, Mishra ji will do very well as he belongs to nearby Bahraich. In Katra Bazar, there will be a fight,” he says.
Hindutva, jingoism keeps section of voters with BJP
As the BJP comfortably won in Tarabganj and Colonelganj in 2022, it is Katra Bazar, Payagpur and Kaiserganj where Brij Bhushan is throwing his might.
“The SP too has fielded a Brahmin candidate which is why some Brahmins will shift towards cycle (SP’s symbol),” says Shubham Mishra, a native of Raipur Phakir.
“Fir bhi Bhajpa hi jeetegi (The BJP will still win),” Shri Narayan Dubey cuts in.
Dubey complains about the rampant incidents of loot, the Dial 112 vehicles not arriving on time when a crime happens. He is also miffed with the Maa Pateshwari Devi state university “shifting out of Gonda to Balrampur,” for which he, like many others, blames the dozens of education institutions of the MP that have mushroomed over the years.
“The university was to be built in Colonelganj area as demanded by its MLA Ajay Singh but it has been shifted out to Balrampur due to Brij Bhushan,” he says.
It is the BJP’s Hindutva pitch and jingoism for which Dubey will vote for the BJP again, he says. “Modi ne Pakistan ko kabze me kar liya hai (Modi has reined in Pakistan).”
No wonder Pakistan, surgical strikes and Ram temple are constantly harped on in the speeches delivered by BJP leaders campaigning for Karan.
“Do you know the meaning of this election? Your vote will be like offering a lotus at the feet of Lord Ram,” BJP MLA Bawan Singh tells the public in Raipur Phakir. He asks people not to “waste votes for those who are not even seeking votes”, targeting the SP’s Bhagat Ram Mishra who was holding a rally in a neighbouring village around the same time.
Mishra’s campaign was delayed due to initial opposition by miffed SP leaders like Vinod Shukla and Baijnath Dubey who were seeking a poll ticket. He has paced up his campaign despite a slow start and is targeting the BJP for its “offer to get his nomination cancelled in lieu of any reward.”
“Most people know my nature very well so the local BJP unit members were afraid to breach the topic when they met me. They said they have brought a message from the BJP state unit that I should get my nomination cancelled somehow and I will get whatever I ask. They promised that both my sons will be adjusted in the UP government,” he told the public at a rally.
The SP candidate also dismisses allegations of being “managed by BJP” and targets the BJP for thinking that “everyone is available for sale.”
His party colleagues Vinod Shukla and Baijnath Dubey are targeting Brij Bhushan for spoiling Gonda’s name at international level just like “Maricha played a role in Sita’s abduction” and for not bringing any development to the area.
“Gonda has topped the list of dirtiest cities in the country… Even a child starts walking in 10 years… I want to ask what the MP has done for the village adopted by him. They come here to flaunt their Fortuners,” says Shukla.
Shukla tells ThePrint that he expects the SP to win by at least two lakh votes. “Muslims and Yadavs will side with us and if the Brahmin votes split in our favour, the BJP will be up for a tough contest,” says a member of the SP’s Kaiserganj unit.
(Edited by Tony Rai)