UP elections: Shah meets Jat leaders; focus on poll arithmetic

New Delhi: Union home minister Amit Shah met key leaders of the Jat community on Wednesday and exhorted them to back the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh elections, aiming to build bridges with an influential community that backed the party in 2014, 2017, and 2019, but grew distant from it over the farm laws and the protests over these.

The farm laws were repealed by the government on November last year.

The meeting, which was held at BJP member of Parliament Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma’s house in Delhi, was attended by Union minister Sanjeev Balyan, lawmaker Satyapal Singh, and roughly 200 Jat leaders, said people familiar with the developments. The support of the Jats is seen as key, especially in the western part of the state.

A party functionary said that Shah used agriculture issues and nationalism to draw a connection between the party and the community. “On (Rashtriya Lok Dal chief) Jayant Chaudhary, he (Shah) said there are many possibilities after the polls. For now, he has chosen a party. People of the Jat community will speak to Jayant. BJP’s doors are always open for him,” said Verma.

Elections in Uttar Pradesh begin on February 10 with 58 seats in the western part of the state, an area where Jats form 18% of the electorate and hold away in Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Meerut and Baghpat districts. Shah conducted similar meetings with Jat leaders before the 2014 and 2019 general elections and 2017 assembly polls, and these were widely credited with the community backing the BJP over its traditional choice, the RLD.

The farming community, which moved towards the BJP after the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots, strongly backed the cultivators’ protests against the three central laws and attended mahapanchayats organised by the RLD in their tens of thousands. Several BJP leaders, including ministers, were shown black flags and faced sloganeering at public events.

The BJP is also concerned by the alliance between the Samajwadi Party (SP) and RLD, which is expected to put up a strong fight in the 143 seats of western UP.

A second party functionary said the pitch of the two-hour meeting was Shah’s appeal to the community to choose wisely and not let their differences with the BJP come in the way of showing support to the party. He made pointed references to how the party won the 2017 assembly polls in the state with support of the Jats, and how the community again came out in support of the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The party won 108 seats in the region in 2017.

“He (Shah) told the leaders that the BJP always found support in the Jat community even when there was a perception that the party did not listen to their demands. He also reiterated that the BJP accords highest respect to the community that also sends its young men in large numbers to join the armed forces,” said the functionary, requesting anonymity.

Referring to the RLD, Shah said Jayant Chaudhary chose a “wrong home” but indicated that the BJP was not averse to a post-poll alliance. He blamed the SP for poor governance, and said it was the BJP that restored law and order in western UP and stopped the outward migration of people.

“Jats have always voted for the BJP. They voted for BJP in 2014, 2017 and in 2019. I hope that this time also Jats will vote for BJP. Nobody wants (SP’s) Akhilesh Yadav to become the chief minister in Uttar Pradesh,” said Balyan.

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Shah, who was presented a traditional turban by the Jat leaders as a mark of respect, listed the efforts of the BJP government to recognise the community; including laying the foundation of the Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh University in Aligarh. Since farming remuneration is an election issue in the region, Shah also underlined that it was the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh that waived off over Rs.36,000 crore farmers loans and hiked the price of sugarcane by ₹25 per quintal. The Opposition, however, has been targeting the government for not pushing the sugar mills to clear the pending dues amounting to ₹2,000 crore to cane farmers.

“There is an attempt being made to create a wedge between the BJP and the Jats but the community has not forgotten the misrule of the Samajwadi Party,” said a BJP leader based in UP.

A person who attended the meeting said demands of Bharat Ratna for (former PM) Chaudhary Charan Singh, reservation for Jats and proportionate representation in the central and Uttar Pradesh governments were raised at the meeting.

Jayant Chaudhary gave a terse response to the meeting. “Invite those 700-plus farmer families whom you have destroyed, not me,” he tweeted in Hindi. Farm leaders say that over 700 farmers died in the 14-month long protest against the farm laws.

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Indeed, some Jat leaders said resentment continued to simmer in the community. “Many meetings were held with the government since 2017 but nothing happened in spite of assurances,” said Yashpal Malik, president of the All India Jat Arakshan Samiti.

(with inputs S Raju in Meerut and agencies)