Caste overrides farmers’ agitation in Lakhimpur Kheri

Lakhimpur Kheri, Uttar Pradesh: Shot into limelight after eight people, including four farmers, were mowed down by a vehicle allegedly driven by Union Minister Ajay Kumar Mishra’s son Ashish Mishra during a protest by the farmers against the now scrapped farm laws three years back, the Kheri Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh appears to be witnessing resurgence of caste equations this time.

Lack of employment, leakage of competitive examination papers, stray cattle and rising prices, though, are issues for many yet there is near total unanimity among the electorate that caste factors will ultimately decide the outcome of the polls here.

‘’The incident (killing of four farmers) was not an issue even in the 2022 assembly polls when BJP had won all the five assembly seats in the district.....it is no longer an issue,’’ says Mukesh Verma, a resident of Deokali.

Ajay Mishra, who has an image of a muscleman, has been re-nominated by the BJP. Mishra, though not very popular even among the BJP supporters, is banking on the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Ajay Mishra, who is popularly known as ‘Teni Mishra’, has been telling the electorate that he will be promoted to the cabinet rank (currently he is MoS), if he wins again. Union Home Minister Amit Shah also said during his election rally here a few days back that he would make Mishra ‘bada aadmi’ (important person) if he emerged victorious.

Although Shah’s remarks drew flak from the opposition leaders, a section of the electorate felt that Mishra, if he was promoted, could bring development to this area and resolve the issues confronting the people. Mishra is banking on the support of three lakh Brahmins and a large section of the OBCs to sail through.

BJP had also been facing dissent here as three of the five MLAs of the party were not seen in the election rallies nor were they active in their respective constituencies. Local BJP leaders said that they were not on good terms with Mishra.

The Samajwadi Party (SP), apparently keeping in mind the large number of Kurmi voters in the constituency, has fielded Utkarsh Verma, a Kurmi and a majority of the community members appear to be behind him. The Kurmis and other OBCs number around seven lakh in the constituency and their support may prove to be decisive. ‘’Kurmis are solidly behind the SP nominee,’’ says Mukesh Verma.

The SP candidate is also banking on the support of around one lakh Sikhs, mainly farmers, who were at the forefront of the farmers’ agitation in 2021, and 2.5 lakh Muslim voters.

The BSP has fielded Anshay Singh Kalra, a sikh, in the hope of securing the support of the community along the party’s core vote bank of dalits, who too have a sizable presence here. The Sikh community, however, appears to be in favour of the SP nominee.

For the youngsters, lack of employment and leakage of papers of competitive exams are big issues. ‘’There are no jobs....exams are cancelled after paper leaks and many times the matter goes to the courts,’’ says Ashok Gupta, a resident of the town.

Stray cattle was another issue in the constituency and the people, especially the farmers, came down heavily on the government for failing to resolve this issue. ‘’Modiji had said during the assembly polls that the issue would be resolved but nothing happened,’’ said Awadhesh Verma, a resident of Gola Gokarannath, an assembly segment under the LS seat.

In the 2019 LS polls, Mishra had defeated his nearest SP rival Poorvi Verma by over two lakh votes. It will be interesting to see if Mishra, who had also won from here in 2014 LS polls, makes a hat-trick and is indeed made a ‘bada aadmi’. Polling will be held here on Monday.