Uttar Pradesh byelections | SP banks on PDA pitch to retain Karhal, BJP invokes Lord Krishna

SP candidate Tej Pratap Singh Yadav files his nomination papers for the bypoll in the presence of party chief Akhilesh Yadav.
| Photo Credit: PTI

Naval Shakya, a Samajwadi Party (SP) worker from Uttar Pradesh’s capital Lucknow, is busy attending at least 8-10 political meetings every day in Mainpuri district’s Karhal Assembly seat that goes to byelection on November 20. “I have participated in ‘Nukkad Sabhas’ since 9 a.m. hoping my hard work pays off with a historic victory for our party’s candidate on November 23,” he said.

Since the declaration of the bypoll, thousands of SP workers have been camping at Mainpuri town and making regular visits to Karhal, just 4 km from party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s native village, Saifai, in Etawah district and one of the five Assembly segments that are part of his wife Dimple Yadav’s Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency.

The district has been witnessing the arrival of leaders and workers from the SP and the BJP in large numbers to campaign for their respective candidates contesting the bypoll necessitated due to the resignation of sitting MLA Mr. Akhilesh after being elected as MP from Kannauj in the Lok Sabha poll. “We haven’t seen such a massive mobilisation of political workers in earlier elections even during SP rule. This time, MLAs are interacting with voters in small houses for hours,” said Ram Sharan, a local trader.

A family affair

The bypoll is a family affair with Tej Pratap Singh Yadav, SP candidate and Mr. Akhilesh’s nephew, facing off against BJP candidate Anujesh Pratap Singh, who switched over from the SP in 2017 and is married to Sandhya Yadav, the sister of Dharmendra Yadav, SP MP from Azamgarh and Mr. Akhilesh’s cousin.

“Our bond with the people of Karhal is a familial one. Netaji (SP founder the late Mulayam Singh Yadav) shared ties with the people even before he entered politics,” said Mr. Tej Pratap Singh, former Mainpuri MP and son-in-law of RJD leader Lalu Prasad.

The SP leadership is leaving no stone unturned to retain the Yadav-dominated seat, which has been a stronghold of the party since 1993. In the 2002 Assembly election, the seat went to the BJP’s Sobaran Singh Yadav but he later joined the SP. Party leaders and workers are going door to door in its pocket borough and holding 8-10 ‘Jansampark’ and ‘Nukkad’ meetings daily in teams of 15 to 20 with the aim of strengthening their bond with voters. Top State party leaders like SP general secretary Shivpal Singh Yadav and Lok Sabha members Ms. Dimple and Mr. Dharmendra are taking out village-centric rallies.

The party is eyeing victory by over one lakh votes and aiming to bolster its social base with its PDA pitch, an acronym for ‘Pichhde (backward classes)’, Dalits, and ‘Alpsankhyak (minorities)’ coined during the 2022 Assembly poll by the SP chief. In the Assembly poll, Mr. Akhilesh emerged victorious in Karhal by over 67,000 votes. “We want to win by breaking all previous records. It’s time we build on the momentum after our performance in the Lok Sabha poll,” said Javieer Singh, another SP worker.

In its daily outreach programmes, the Opposition party is pitching the PDA plank in a bid to mobilise non-Yadav Other Backward Classes (OBCs), primarily the Shakya community, which has sizeable numbers in the constituency.

Party workers hailing from Shakya and Dalit communities are being deputed to areas dominated by these social groups. The focus on the Shakya community is also due to the entry of Bahujan Samaj Party candidate Avinash Kumar Shakya, who is trying to make inroads into this vote bank of the SP.

After the Yadavs, the Shakyas are numerically the second-largest social group in Karhal. Out of the 3.75 lakh electors, over 1.25 lakh are Yadavs, while 70,000 are Shakyas.

The BJP, the key challenger, is reaching out to the Yadavs, with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in his recent campaign rally in Karhal claiming that while the BJP respects the sentiments of people for Lord Krishna in Mathura, the SP is silent on the issue as it is more concerned about its vote bank. “The people of Karhal should tell them [SP] that if you cannot respect Krishna-Kanhaiya, why do you come to seek our votes? The BJP had promised to build a temple in Ayodhya and we did that. Shri Krishna-Kanhaiya will come, we will respect the public sentiment in Mathura too,” he said.

The BJP leaders are also heaping praise on the late Mulayam Singh Yadav while hitting out at the SP’s present leadership for “surrendering to the Congress, which the party patriarch never wanted to trust”. The Congress is not contesting the bypoll, but it is backing the SP, its INDIA bloc ally.