Battle for Jat leadership intensifies in western UP

C R Rathee

With three veteran Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) MPs of western Uttar Pradesh having left the party, Ajit Singh remains the sole RLD MP in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). After being inducted into the Union Cabinet, he has become the presiding deity of Krishi Bhawan and continues to project himself as the principal spokesman of the Jat peasantry, if not of the entire northern region, at least of western Uttar Pradesh.

In fact, Ajit Singh’s supporters claim to have the blessings of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who elevated him as agriculture minister. Political observers in UP, however, point out that left to himself Mr Vajpayee was not in favour of Ajit Singh being inducted as agriculture minister. This was because both the seven-member Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), headed by Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala, and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) of Punjab chief minister Prakash Singh Badal were opposed to the move.

However, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) insiders say that the Mr Vajpayee had to reluctantly bow down to the wishes of his party’s poll strategists in UP, who were in favour of a pre-poll alliance with Ajit Singh. They worked out the alliance in a bid to woo Jat votes in western UP in the ensuing assembly elections in the state.

In fact, observers say that a section in the BJP even went to the extent of pointing out to UP chief minister Rajnath Singh that that the impressive turn-out in anti-Ajit Singh rallies held by Mr Chautala in western UP’s Jat belt, under the banner of Kisan Pradesh Sangharsh Samiti (KPSS), did not reflect the electoral mood of the peasantry.

Despite these developments, it is said that Rajnath Singh and his supporters feel that since both Mr Chautala and Mr Badal are constituents of the NDA, Muslim voters of western UP will be reluctant to go by their mandate. They feel the only leader who can attract a section of western UP’s Muslim votes is former defence minister and Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Political observers in the state say that in an era of caste and ethnicity-based politics, it would be no surprise if Mr Chautala blessed his admirers in UP to align with Mulayam Singh, his father Devi Lal’s old friend.

As of now, Mr Chautala is keeping his cards close to his chest vis-a-vis the UP assembly polls. He may avoid direct confrontation with the BJP on account of his personal reverence for Mr Vajpayee, but it will be no surprise if he blessed some of his admirers in UP, like Laxmi Narain and Sardar Singh (both Jat ministers in the Rajnath Singh ministry), who are in the forefront of Mr Chautala’s bid to settle scores with Ajit Singh, to either fight as KPSS nominees or that of INLD (in case the party opts to contest the UP assembly elections, even if it means opposing BJP candidates).

With every passing day, the battle for Jat leadership in the state is intensifying. While Ajit Singh has started making forays into Haryana and has started publicly criticising Mr Chautala’s government, the latter, too, has unleashed a war against Ajit Singh in UP, attacking not just him but even his mother Gayatri Devi, who had, long back, forfeited her security deposit in the Rohtak-Sonepat parliamentary constituency that she had contested as Charan Singh’s widow. Incidentally, her parental village is close to Jhanjhauli village (near Sonepat) where the BJP has set up an ashram to hold secret strategic parleys in connection with the polls in UP. The political goings-on in UP’s Jat belt would thus be watched with great interest, even in Haryana.