Kairana: The blistering heat of 45 degrees celsius on Thursday saw a Yogi Adityanath public rally in Shamli’s Kisan Inter College in the Kairana Lok Sabha constituency, Uttar Pradesh, where by-elections will be held on May 28. The contest, essentially, is between the BJP’s Mriganka Singh, daughter of Hukum Singh whose passing away necessitated the by-poll, and Rashtriya Lok Dal’s (RLD) Tabassum Hassan supported by the Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Congress. A massive shamiana was put up in the grounds of the college, and dignitaries, including Sanjeev Balyan (BJP MP from Muzaffarnagar), Suresh Rana (BJP MLA from Thana Bhawan), and Mriganka Singh (BJP candidate for Kairana) sat on a large dais that had been set up with water coolers to provide relief from the savage heat. Suresh Rana, sugarcane development minister in Adityanath’s cabinet, went up to speak, taking out a sheet of paper from the pocket of his kurta. Rana, in the last year and two months that he has been a minister, has been closely watched here in western UP’s sugarcane belt. Prior to the 2017 Vidhan Sabha elections, the BJP campaigned aggressively in this region trying to woo sugarcane farmers. Their principal ‘promise’ was aimed at addressing an issue that cane farmers have had to deal with for several years – delayed payments from sugar mills. The BJP’s manifesto promised that the party would ensure payment to sugarcane farmers within 14 days of selling their produce. The promise, however, hasn’t been kept. Sugarcane dues in the state are in excess of Rs 12,000 crore. “I am more interested in listening to Suresh Rana than Adityanath. He is the sugarcane minister and it is his job to ensure that timely payments are made. We haven’t been paid for the last four months. I would like to hear his explanation,” said Deepak Rathi, a sugarcane farmer at the rally who is owed Rs 1,50,000 by sugar mills.Yogi Adityanath’s public rally in Shamli’s Kisan Inter college. Credit: Moniza HafizeeAware of what voters in his constituency came to listen to, Rana began by addressing the sugarcane question. “I know sugarcane dues are a cause for concern for you. And believe me, I feel your pain. And I am working hard to relieve your pain. This issue will soon be resolved,” Rana said without divulging any details on how he plans on solving the problem. Rana then shifted from defence to attack. “But, let me ask you. What were sugarcane dues during the Samajwadi Party regime? Weren’t they higher?” Rana asked gesturing with one hand stretched above his head. Some in the crowd said “yes,” while most stood confused. Rana, who is well-known for setting the agenda during election campaigns with unrestrained speeches appeared to be struggling for ideas – with his characteristic communal rhetoric missing. He finished his speech by outlining one achievement of the Adityanath government – ‘improvement’ in the law and order situation in western UP – almost as an afterthought. “Encounters in this region have instilled fear among those who took the law for granted and terrorised the people of this region. Now, criminals say that don’t give us bail, keep us in jail,” he ended his speech to scattered applause.The BJP’s campaign in Kairana has been largely reactionary, focusing on a sharp political pitch launched by RLD’s vice-president, Jayant Chaudhary. “What will be the poll agenda in Kairana: Gannah (sugarcane) or Jinnah?” Chaudhary had said when the campaign began. “Jayant made it a binary when he said that. The message was that if BJP tried to consolidate Hindu votes by invoking issues like Jinnah and Hindu exodus, it was doing it at the cost of sugarcane farmers. This has made it difficult for the BJP to go all out in its effort to consolidate Hindu votes in that fashion, because there is a fear of alienating the peasant class, which is the most crucial in this election,” said a senior BJP leader from western UP, who wished to remain anonymous. According to the Indian Express, cane dues in the Kairana Lok Sabha constituency amount to Rs 807 crore. “We voted for the BJP because they promised that sugarcane dues will be cleared within 14 days. But, things haven’t changed. They are still the same. If not worse,” said Jitender Rana, a sugarcane farmer who is owed Rs 2 lakh by the Upper Doab sugar mill in Shamli. When Adityanath got up from his saffron-coloured seat to speak at the rally, the crowd chanted in unison, “Yogi! Yogi! Yogi!…”. After paying his respects to the late Hukum Singh and acknowledging everyone who sat on the dais, Adityanath took the opportunity to address the question that had been raised by Jayant Chaudhary. “Kuch log gannah aur Jinnah ki baat kar rahe hain. Main aapko batana chahata hun ki ganna mudda hai, Jinnah baad mein (Some people are talking about sugarcane and Jinnah. I want to tell you that for us, sugarcane is the issue, Jinnah comes later),” Adityanath said to loud cheering from the crowd.Security personnel outside thew venue. Credit: Moniza HafizeeAdityanath then listed out some of the recent interventions of his government to help solve the sugarcane payments problem. “We remain committed to solving the problems of sugarcane farmers. We take full responsibility and will ensure payment soon,” Adityanath said, as the crowd applauded lightly. Speaking to The Wire after the rally, Sanjeev Balyan acknowledged that mounting sugarcane dues are a cause for concern. “I agree that a section of people are upset with us due to the delay in sugarcane payments. It is an issue, I accept. We need to take more aggressive steps to resolve this issue for farmers because it is a major problem for them. I spoke to the chief minister today about this and he has assured me that steps will be taken,” Balyan said. Outside the venue of the Adityanath rally, a group of men sat at a park discussing Adityanath’s speech. “He spoke well, I think,” said one. “Yes, he spoke mostly on expected lines. Nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing concrete,” said another, slightly disappointed. Virender Singh, who was part of the crowd at the rally turned towards us and said, “I think the BJP has done well in the last one year, and we will vote for them. Sugarcane payment has always been a problem. It is not new. But, they have done better on law and order.”A scene from outside the rally. Credit: Moniza HafizeeRohtash Saini, also part of the gathering, felt differently. “The BJP has only increased our problems. Look at how the electricity rates have gone up. Now, we have to pay Rs 800 per month. And we, as sugarcane farmers, are still not getting paid on time.”“But, what can the RLD do? They are powerless. They are a dying party. How can we put any faith in them?” asked Dheeraj Singh, from among the crowd. “They are Chaudhary sahab’s (Charan Singh) party. It is the only party that is focused on farmers. But, yes, they are weak. And also have a bad track-record,” Saini responded. The BJP is trying hard to woo sugarcane farmers in the region and campaign posters and fliers for both the RLD and the BJP have one thing in common – a picture of Chaudhary Charan Singh, prominently placed. “You can’t have a political campaign in western UP and ignore Chaudhary Charan Singh. Moreover, Charan Singh doesn’t belong only to the RLD. Even we follow his philosophy,” Sanjeev Balyan said. Even Adityanath, who is not known to speak too much about political icons of the past, mentioned Charan Singh several times in his speech. “I want to tell you that our party is committed to Chaudhary Charan Singh’s ideology. He is the symbol for farmers all over the country, and particularly in western UP. We will follow in Chaudhary sahab’s footsteps,” Adityanath said. However, the RLD is not too impressed. “Sab dhong hai (It is all false). They don’t have anything to go to the voters with because they haven’t delivered on any of the promises. And have actually made things worse for the farmers,” said Raj Kumar Sangwan, RLD’s western UP organising secretary. “These people will not even be able to tell you what Chaudhary Charan Singh’s ideology is, if you ask them. Forget about following his ideology,” Sangwan added.The RLD, however, has problems of its own. If the BJP’s campaign has been found struggling for ideas, the RLD’s campaign has been disorganised and disjointed. The RLD candidate, Tabassum Hassan, was until last month with the Samajwadi Party. Her campaign is largely being run by the SP, with a significant lack of coordination between the SP and the RLD, who are alliance partners. At the RLD office in Shamli, no one was aware of Hassan’s campaign schedule, while Jayant Chaudhary and Ajit Singh’s campaign schedules were displayed prominently. “Her campaign is being managed by the Kairana RLD office,” said Sangwan at the RLD’s Shamli office. However, RLD’s Kairana office wore a deserted look with the person in-charge enjoying a siesta as the television played a south indian movie dubbed in Hindi. “She is on the campaign trail somewhere in Kairana,” he said after his woke up, proving to be of little help. A senior SP leader accepted that a lack of coordination exists. “Yes, I have felt the same. See, this alliance was quite delayed. There are also some SP leaders who had wished to contest on their own and are not very happy. Thus, there is certainly some discontent. These parties have not been in an alliance for some time, so, local level workers are not very keen on working together. So, essentially, they [RLD] have their own campaign and we [SP] have our own campaign.” “But, we will win, that’s for sure,” the leader added.However, a crucial caveat remains, according to a senior RLD leader – Narendra Modi’s visit to nearby Baghpat on May 27. Modi is scheduled to visit Baghpat to inaugurate an expressway just a day before Kairana goes to polls. “That could change things. He is someone who does sway voters, particularly at the last moment,” said the RLD leader.
