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Journalism of Courage
Among the 55 UP Assembly constituencies heading for polls on February 14 is the Najibabad seat in Bijnor district, which has a remarkable electoral history. It was once a Left bastion represented by one of its most popular leaders, the late Ram Swaroop Singh, a Communist Party of India (Marxist) member.
Situated on the UP-Uttarakhand border, Najibabad has always challenged all political parties, never allowing any of them to take it for granted. The ruling BJP has been able to win this constituency only once since 1993. In the upcoming election too, Najibabad is going to put all the contenders on test, even as the contest will be essentially a triangular affair involving the BJP, the SP-RLD and the BSP.
Najibabad has a near-equal mix of Hindu and Muslim populations with Jats and Dalits also inhabiting the constituency in sizeable numbers. A number of its local residents maintain that the area has largely been ignored and kept off the development map.
“There are a lot of problems in Najibabad, including lack of development of roads and pathways in the interior of villages. It has perhaps to do with the fact that the wave of a ruling party usually doesn’t reach here as people from different parties keep getting elected. People only need progress and want their local issues to be resolved. The SP-RLD alliance does hold promise for many,” said Mohd Ali, a local resident in Shamipur.
Locals fondly recall a warm, soft-spoken Ram Swaroop Singh, who represented Najibabad in the UP Assembly for three consecutive terms between 1993 and 2006. Hailing from Uttarakhand, Ram Swaroop was known for properly utilising public funds for local development works. From setting up roads to streetlights to hand pumps, he offered solutions to the Najibabad people’s various problems, which contributed to his popularity among them.
After Ram Swaroop’s death in 2006, his son Raju, a teacher, contested the election on the CPI(M) ticket in 2007, but lost. The Left’s footprint in Najibabad shrunk after Ram Swaroop’s demise and regional parties began to make inroads into the belt.
The key issues dominating the election discourse among the locals this time include development, communal politics and jobs. In Muslim-majority areas, the BJP’s aggressive, high-pitched campaign has had an impact on people. “There has been a bombardment of statements that only talk about Hindu-Muslim issues,” Zeeshan, a law student said. “As a student, I only want to think about a secure future. We have not seen a drastic increase in employment for the last few years. And the SP has talked about jobs extensively.”
The BJP has given its ticket in Najibabad to its known Jat face, Kunwar Bhartendra Singh. He was the MP from Bijnor in 2014 and had served as a cabinet minister during the BJP-BSP coalition government in 2002. One of the accused in the Muzaffarnagar riots, Bhartendra had made a pitch for a hostel in the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) to be named after a Jat King. By putting him in the fray, the BJP aims to split the SP-RLD’s Jat support base in the area.
Keeping in view social equations and the polarisation factor, both the SP-RLD and BSP have fielded Muslim candidates, with the alliance repeating the sitting SP MLA Tasleem Ahmad, a businessman-turned-politician and two-term legislator. The BSP has fielded a local leader Shahnawaz Alam. Even the Congress has nominated a Muslim candidate, Salim Ansari.
While talking about the mood of the constituency voters, locals are not ready to rule out an element of surprise. “This is a place where the father does not know whom his son is voting for, and vice versa. People here are very opinionated and you cannot predict a trend. The public knows what they want and will make each vote count,” said a smiling Mohd Arif in Mandawali.
