When it comes to casting votes in the Hindi heartland, the caste espoused by a party is the key.
Giving no value to the merits of the candidates, four persons from distinct communities and different villages in the Kannauj constituency discuss how caste remains pivotal in this part of India.
Lalit Kumar Mishra from Akbarpur under Chhibramau tehsil says he would go with the BJP; Neelesh Yadav from Chintapurwa village under Tirwa tehsil says he has always voted for the SP; Dharmendra Singh Tomar of the dominant Thakur caste from Tusawari village and Premchand Rajput from the Lodhi caste under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category from Sariya village in Kannauj district, say they have been voting for the BJP to keep a check on the “atrocities of the Yadavs”.
For Ram Babu Katheria, a Dalit from Chintapurwa, BSP means pride for the community. “However, a section of the Dalits may vote for some other party, as the BSP is not very active here this time,” he said.
Kannauj is a microcosm of caste-driven politics that has survived for decades and seems to stay on for years.
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav is contesting from Kannauj Lok Sabha seat against BJP candidate Subrat Pathak. “We are Brahmins. We always vote for the BJP. This time, too, we shall vote for the same party,” said Mishra, 54, a farmer.
“The law-and-order situation has improved in the state ever since the Yogi Adityanath government came to power. There is no loot of property. Now, we sleep peacefully at night,” Mishra said.
Sariya village has about 50 families, all from the Lodhi caste.
“The entire Chintapurwa (the next village) votes for the SP. That is mainly a Yadav village. They threaten us at times saying we should be careful. That is why we vote for the BJP,” said Premchand, 50, a farmer in Sariya village.
Gaurav Rajput, pursuing a diploma in physiotherapy at BR Ambedkar Medical College, which was set up by the Akhilesh government before 2017, said the former chief minister had done development works in Kannauj. “But the votes will go to the BJP,” he said.
Rekha Verma, a Lodhi, is the SP MLA from Bidhuna Assembly seat. She was the probable SP candidate for Kannauj but Akhilesh preferred to contest from the constituency.
“Five candidates from Akhilesh’s family are contesting the elections. There is no internal democracy in the SP. Leaders from other castes do not get importance,” Rajput said.
The SP is contesting in 62 Lok Sabha seats. Dimple Yadav, wife of Akhilesh, is the party candidate in Mainpuri, while Akhilesh’s cousins Dharmendra Yadav, Akshay Yadav and Aditya Yadav are contesting from Azamgarh, Firozabad and Badaun respectively.
In Tusawari, Tomar said, no political party comes for campaigning to their village because there are no internal roads. The wastewater from the houses flows to the muddy roads.
“The BJP knows our village votes for them. Other parties do not expect any vote from us. So nobody comes,” he said.
In Chintapurwa, Neelesh Yadav refuted the allegations of the Yadav community indulging in anti-social activities. “It is wrong to say that the Yadavs are involved in anti-social activities. Such people are in every caste. What is happening is that only Yadavs are being targeted now,” he said.
He also disagreed with the criticism about the SP promoting dynasty politics.
“Yogi Adityanath has no family. He cannot field anyone. But Akhileshji has a family. His supporters want the family to contest. There is no issue in it,” Yadav said, adding that Thakurs were accused in the rape and murder of a Dalit girl in Hathras in 2020. “But no one talks about that case,” he said.
