Katehari assembly seat: Lab of Dalit politics now the arena for 3-way bypoll fight

Considered the laboratory of Dalit politics in Uttar Pradesh, the bypoll-bound Katehari assembly constituency in Ambedkarnagar district is witnessing a three-way fight among the Bharatiya Janata Party, Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party.

The seat used to be a BSP stronghold as the party won it in five times in 1993, 1996, 2002, 2007 and 2017. The SP was victorious twice in the 2012 and 2022 assembly elections and the BJP only once in 1991 when its candidate Anil Kumar Tewari bagged the seat, riding on the Ram temple movement.

The BJP failed to win the seat in the 2017 and 2022 assembly polls despite forming a majority government in Uttar Pradesh.

As a consolation, the BJP candidate was the runner-up in 2017 assembly election and its ally NISHAD party candidate was second in the 2022 assembly election.

The political scenario in Katehari changed after Lalji Verma, a former minister in the Mayawati government who won the seat on the BSP ticket in 2017, defected to the SP in 2021 and won the seat for his new party in 2022. He vacated the seat after winning the Ambedkarnagar Lok Sabha seat in June 2024.

A popular Kurmi leader, Verma wields considerable influence over OBCs and Dalits in the district. The SP has fielded his wife Shobhawati Verma.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav has appointed senior party leader Shivpal Singh Yadav as in-charge of the bypoll in Katehri.

Keen to wrest the seat, the BJP has pulled out all the stops and chief minister Yogi Adityanath has addressed public meetings in Katehari thrice within two months.

He also inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of 6,778 development projects worth ₹1,231 crore in Katehari in September. Earlier, he launched mega employment and loan fairs in which 6,572 youths were given employment letters.

The BJP has played OBC card by fielding a turncoat Dharamraj Nishad. A former minister in Mayawati government (2007-12), Nishad won the seat in the 1996, 2002 and 2007 assembly elections.

Nishad was in the news recently due to a slogan on his hoarding urging voters, “This time either make me win or put me on my deathbed”. After the BJP distanced itself from the slogan, his supporters removed the hoardings.

Nishad claimed his opponents had installed the hoardings across the constituency as part of a conspiracy.

The BJP has made Jal Shakti minister Swatantra Dev Singh, an OBC Kurmi leader, in- charge of the by-election in Katehari.

National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partners -- NISHAD party chief Sanjay Nishad and Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) chief Om Prakash Rajbhar – are also campaigning in the constituency where Nishad and Rajbhar votes will be decisive.

Upper caste Brahmins dominated the politics in the area before the Mandal movement. After 1991, no Brahmin candidate has won in Katehari though the BJP fielded Awadesh Dwivedi in the 2017 assembly election. He contested on the NISHAD party ticket in 2022, losing on both occasions.

“Despite a strong presence of Brahmin voters and BJP workers, Dwivedi lost both the elections. In the bypoll, BJP is working on the OBC- Upper Caste- Dalit formula,” a BJP leader said.

Playing the Dalit-OBC card to regain lost ground in its former stronghold, the BSP has fielded Amit Verma, an OBC leader and former president of the district Congress committee.

State BSP president Vishawanath Pal said, “The BJP and SP have no base in the constituency. Both the parties are relying on BSP rebels to win. Voters will support the BSP. They are aware of the development projects launched in the constituency under the BSP government.”

In the 1998, 1999 and 2004 Lok Sabha elections, Mayawati won the parliamentary seat, then known as Akbarpur, converting it into a stronghold of her party.

After the defeat in the 2022 assembly election, the BSP is trying to make a comeback in the by-election, Pal said.