What Bijnor was for Mayawati, will Nagina be for Akash Anand?

Exactly 35 years ago in 1989, a fiercely combative young Dalit lady had chosen to enter the electoral contest in a political landscape that was largely dominated by the Congress and an increasingly assertive Bharatiya Janata Party.

The battle ground for this contest was the Bijnor Lok Sabha constituency and the lady amid the political whirlwind was Mayawati.

Then, she was a protege of Bahujan Samaj Party founder Kanshi Ram. Mayawati won the election and the rest is history.

More than three decades later, now as the BSP’s national president, it is Mayawati who is placing the bet on her chosen protege, her business management graduate nephew Akash Anand, albeit as the heir apparent from the Nagina Lok Sabha constituency in the very same district of Bijnor. Though Akash is not a candidate himself, his challenge is to curb the upward graph of a new Dalit resurgence manifested in the persona of Azad Samaj Party chief Chandrashekhar Azad.

Like Mayawati, coming from the Jatav Dalit subcaste, Azad is a candidate from the Nagina reserved seat. For almost a decade now, he has grown in popularity and has been seen as a reflection of the new churning taking place in the Dalit electorate, especially among the youths and mostly in Western Uttar Pradesh.

This Akash Anand versus Azad battle is going to gather momentum from April 6, when the BSP’s young national coordinator is all set to kickstart the party’s election campaign from Nagina. The seat came into existence after delimitation only in 2009. Since then, it has been with both the SP and the BJP in 2009 and 2014, respectively, and then with the BSP in 2019.

In 2019, the BSP won the seat in alliance with the SP. Now, amid the three-way contest among the BJP, SP and the BSP, a fourth strong dimension has been added by Azad. No doubt, the mood of Dalit voters will go a long way in defining the future course of Dalit electoral choices. Hence, curbing Azad in Nagina is the priority task for the BSP.

On his part, Azad is already on the move, addressing public meetings and organising yatras in the constituency that has large a settlement of Dalit voters. He is working to establish himself as a prominent Dalit leader in Uttar Pradesh politics by winnin the seat.

While naming Akash Anand as her political successor in December last year, Mayawati had said to a gathering of party leaders, “In the upcoming Lok Sabha election, Akash will manage the party affairs in the states where the organisation is weak whereas she (Mayawati) will handle the working of the party in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.”

After Chandra Shekhar filed his nomination from Nagina on March 22 and sought to claim the legacy of BSP founder Kanshi Ram, Mayawati amended her strategy, sensing a challenge to the BSP’s undisputed dominance in Dalit politics from ASP chief.

She decided to call Akash to Uttar Pradesh to launch the campaign from Nagina .

The BSP has mobilized its resources to make Akash’s campaign a mega show of strength.

Along with addressing public meetings, Akash will participate in roadshows in support of the party candidate Surendra Pal, a Jatav leader, who has replaced sitting MP Girish Chandra who has been shifted to Bulandshahr.

The BJP has fielded Om Kumar, the sitting MLA from Nehtaur. Former judicial officer Manoj Kumar is the Samajwadi Party candidate.

Akash made his first noticeable foray in electoral politics, though not as a candidate, in the 2019 Lok Sabha election, when he had addressed a public meeting with Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav in Agra after the Election Commission of India had imposed a ban on Mayawati’s rallies on the charge of violation of the model code of conduct.

This time, Akash, 28, will address two dozen public meetings in 16 constituencies going to poll in the first and second phases of the Lok Sabha election on April 19 and 26. Nagina will witness polling on April 19.

“Nagina will witness a faceoff between two young Dalit leaders both belonging to the Jatav community who are claiming the legacy of BSP founder Kanshi Ram as well as BSP chief Mayawati. To send a message to the Dalit community, Mayawati has entrusted Akash with launching the campaign whereas she will start her campaign from April 11. Chandrashekhar’s defeat will end his claim to the mantle of Dalit leadership and establish Akash’s supremacy,” said SK Singh a political observer.

In a post on X, Azad appealed to people for financial support to his election campaign which he termed as the movement of “social change and economic liberation”.

Earlier, Azad had planned to contest from Nagina as an INDIA bloc candidate. He was active in the area with Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Jayant Chaudhary, holding meetings in west Uttar Pradesh. After Jayant walked out of the INDIA bloc to join the NDA, there were no takers for ASP chief in the alliance. Moreover, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav closed the doors on Azad by naming Manoj Kumar as the party candidate.

GFX

NAGINA WINNERS

2009 Yashvir Singh SP

2014 Yashwant Singh BJP

2019 Girish Chandra BSP

The Nagina Lok Sabha constituency came into existence in 2009 after delimitation.

Its assembly segments are Najibabad (currently held by SP), Nagina (SP), Dhampur (BJP), Nehtaur (BJP) and Noorpur (SP).