In Lucknow’s Sarojini Nagar constituency, candidates of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Samajwadi Party (SP) are facing an “outsider” versus “Brahmin face” challenge. While the SP’s Abhishek Mishra, a trusted lieutenant of Akhilesh Yadav, and its ‘Brahmin face’ from the constituency, is fighting the perception that the party consists of goons and criminals, BJP’s Rajeshwar Singh, a former joint director of the Enforcement Directorate Huh. Trying to remove the “external” tag.
“The SP knows only one type of politics which is casteism and communalism. Our ideology is ‘Nation First’. Their ideology is ‘bhrashtachar first’ (corruption first), caste and family first (caste and family first),” Rajeshwar Singh tells News18.
Mishra, who calls Singh an “outsider”, mentions his love for Lucknow and his association with the city of his birth. “The other person (Rajeshwar Singh) who has come to contest elections from one party has come to Lucknow for the first time in political terms. He is going to stay here for 20 days and after that pack his bags and leave. Having a family in a city is not the same as being in that city. BJP knows that no local person will be able to win that seat, so someone from outside who was seeking seat from Sultanpur, then Ayodhya, has been fielded from Lucknow,” remarked Mishra.
Also, the “external” tag, Rajeshwar Singh has a “local” problem. The BJP has denied ticket to its sitting MLA and minister Swati Singh from Sarojini Nagar constituency, which may not have gone down well with her. Knowing that cadre support is important, Rajeshwar met Swati on Wednesday and sought her support.
“Swati Singh is a senior leader and my sister. We will all fight the elections together,” the former ED official said when asked about Swati’s displeasure.
Many in the BJP believe that Swati has extended her support to Rajeshwar, but she is not “happy with the arrangement”.
New constituency, new challenge
While Mishra of SP claims Lucknow as his own, Sarojini Nagar constituency will be a new challenge for him as he had earlier contested from Lucknow West.
“I have done a lot of work in my constituency but the party has ordered me to contest from Sarojini and I am happy to comply,” Mishra said.
The fact that Mishra is also contesting from this seat for the first time does not make it a loser to the BJP.
Rajeshwar Singh’s candidature is being questioned by the opposition as he was at the center of investigation of several scams during the UPA’s tenure.
Even Karti Chidambaram tweeted against Singh calling his candidature a “transfer from a wholly owned subsidiary to the parent company”.
Asked about these criticisms, Singh, wearing a saffron dhoti and kurta, walking out of the Hanuman temple before filing his nomination, smiled and said, “Let Karti ji fight his case and face trial.”
Around 2.90 lakh people had voted in the 2017 assembly elections. 1.08 lakh chose BJP, while SP got around 74,000 votes, followed by BSP with 71,000 votes. There was an independent candidate Rudradaman Singh, who secured 20,000 votes and is contesting this time on a Congress ticket.
Rudradaman Singh, a Thakur face of the Congress, is seen as crucial as he may cut into the community votes that may go to BJP’s Rajeshwar Singh.
A senior BJP leader said, “He is also a Thakur like Rajeshwar Singh and he was able to garner 20,000 votes (in 2017) and 41,000 votes in 2012.”
How important is the Brahmin factor for SP?
Abhishek Mishra, who is considered to be the Brahmin face of the Samajwadi Party, is getting the support of community leaders, which may have an impact on the election results.
Mishra, who called Rajeshwar Singh an “outsider”, recognizes the value of supporting the Brahmin community. Receiving a greeting from the community representatives at his residence in Gomti Nagar, Mishra said, “A Brahmin cannot forget three things – aapna (disgrace), samman (honour) and ehsaan (favour).
Whether he believes he can exploit community dissent for his own gain, Mishra said, “I think Brahmins have been feeling very hurt in the BJP for a very long time. I think it started when BJP declared that Lord Parashuram is not a God but a great man. And this is not where it ends, in every locality, Brahmins feel humiliated,” said Mishra.
Mishra had filed half his nominations on Wednesday following the advice of his astrologer and is due to file the rest on Thursday.
Evolution vs. Polarization Debate
When asked about Akhilesh Yadav’s “Jinnah remark”, Mishra said, “Jinnah was brought into politics by Advani ji. He paid tribute. If the BJP has guts then it should be asked why he did it. PM Why did you go to Pakistan to eat biryani uninvited?
He alleged that the BJP talks about “Hindu, Muslim, temple-mosque, graveyard and cremation ground”, and when nothing is left, they bring Pakistan-Taliban.
Singh, however, says that it is the development and law and order situation in the state that characterizes Yogi Adityanath’s administration as opposed to the criminals and mafia of the Samajwadi Party.
“Development is the issue on which BJP is fighting this election and CM Yogi (Adityanath) aspires for a trillion economy,” Singh said.
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