Mahender Singh, 65, says the absence of credible and formidable opponents like Jayaprakash Narayan has made Prime Minister Narendra Modi look invincible despite several faultlines his rule has exacerbated.

“Modi has become very arrogant and has little regard for the autonomy of public institutions in the country, very similar to the contempt former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had shown for these institutions once,” he said, sitting on a charpoy and drawing on a hookah in the verandah of his home at Kandela village in western Uttar Pradesh, around 135km from Delhi.

“But the country had then seen Jayaprakash Narayan as a formidable opponent to challenge Indira. Who is there to confront and dare Modi? The Opposition is now in complete disarray,” Mahender, a Jat farmer who owns 10 bighas of agricultural land, rued.

Modi, he said, has failed on several counts during his 10 years in power. “Unemployment, price rise and farmers’ distress are the main pressing issues concerning common people in the country now. But Modi has managed to successfully get away with all this in the name of Ram temple and Hindu-Muslim polarisation because Opposition unity is very weak.”

If any Opposition leader, Mahender said, is proving to be a threat, he is being sent to jail.

“Look what happened to Arvind Kejriwal,” Mahender said. “Modi lost the Delhi Assembly elections thrice, so he has taken revenge this time by putting Kejriwal in jail.”

Sitting next to him, Mangad Singh confronted his friend. “In the last 10 years, Modi’s biggest achievement has been the awakening of the Hindus’ self-pride and respect.”

Other issues like job scarcity and inflation, he said, will always be there in a country as big as India.

“Isme Modi ka kya galti hai? Gareebi toh Nehru aur Indira ke zamane mein bhi tha (How is Modi guilty of this? Poverty was also there during the regime of Nehru and Indira),” Mangad retorted.

After a brief pause, Mahender said nonchalantly: “The faith in Modi has blinded people so much that they cannot look beyond the prism of religion. Elections these days are not being fought on real issues concerning day-to-day life.”

“Modi sabki buddhi kha gaya hai (Modi has destroyed the rational thinking of people),” he said, adding that the contradictory views expressed by his friend reflected the overriding mood, especially in the Hindu pockets of the Kiarana constituency in Shamli district.

“Main ab alpsankhyak ho gaya hoon is mamle mein (I am now fringe on this issue),” Mahender said.

Kairana, a dusty town in Shamli district, has a rich history of Jat-Muslim bonhomie and is especially known for the Kairana Gharana of Hindustani classical music established by Ustad Abdul Karim Khan in the late 19th century. It produced, among others, Bhimsen Joshi who composed Mile Sur Mera Tumhara based on Raag Miya ki Malhar, one of the most popular and important ragas to be produced by the Kairana Gharana. The song celebrates India’s unity in diversity.

According to folklore, when Rabindranath Tagore first heard Abdul Karim Khan performing in his melodious voice, he became so engrossed that he burnt his fingers on the lit cigarette.

The shadow of the 2013 communal riots still haunts the twin districts of Muzaffarnagar and Shamli and has created a deep divide.

The BJP has fielded its incumbent MP Pradeep Chaudhury, a Gujjar, who, locals said, is unpopular as was barely seen in his constituency in the past five years. He is pitted against 27-year-old INDIA bloc nominee Iqra Hasan, one of the youngest candidates in the Lok Sabha polls.

A postgraduate in international law from the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies, Iqra is contesting from her family turf as her father, mother and grandfather represented the constituency in the Lok Sabha. Her brother, Nahid Hasan, is a sitting MLA from Kairana while her mother Tabassum lost to Chaudhary in the 2019 polls.

The BSP has fielded a retired BSF jawan, Shripal Singh Rana, who belongs to the Thakur community and is likely to hit Chaudhury’s prospects if he gets the support of his community along with the BSP’s core voters, Dalits.

The Jat farmer, Mahender, lamented how communal polarisation has destroyed the long-cherished history of Kairana’s unity in diversity.

“Such was the unity that earlier if you asked the identity of a person here, he would say Jat/ Gujjar and not his religion. But the politics of hate perpetrated by the ruling party has destroyed the long-cherished bonhomie,” he said.

Kairana voted on Friday