Karhal (Mainpuri): SK Yadav looked excited on a bike hoisting the BJP flag from the handlebar of a two-wheeler. Karhal has almost everyone – the “winning side” and “the one who will taste defeat”. It is like the small town of Mainpuri, indescribable in most ways, but suddenly electrified, with bright streets and clear signs that separate it from neighboring areas. The people here never paid much attention, nor the kind that happened after Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s announcement that he would contest from Vice Chancellor Mulayam Singh’s ‘Karam Sthali’, where he studied, taught, worked. Did and rose.
I asked Nitin Chaturvedi at Sadar Bazar, “What did the home minister of the country say.” He answered his own question: “Karhal is equal to 300 seats in UP. Wow.” He smiled, pleased. Groups of boys and youths in open jeeps and motorcycles, waving thumbs-ups and victory signs, whistled.
On Thursday, while campaigning for BJP candidate and Union Minister SP Singh Baghel in Karhal, Amit Shah had said that it was necessary for the party to defeat the Samajwadi Party in Yadav’s stronghold. Shah had said, “Kill them here and they will lose in UP. One victory in Karhal will be equal to winning 300 seats.”
Shah’s statement has pleased many. 35-year-old Anshu Bali, who runs a cycle repair shop in Gadhiya Chauraha, said, “It’s a big deal to say. “It’s a big deal”. The junction near Jain Inter College, where Mulayam was first a student and then a teacher, is full of Akhilesh’s followers. They affectionately call him Tipu, a childhood name that has stuck. There are SP banners, buntings and posters everywhere – on the walls, above houses, draped with electric poles. “The smooth roads you are seeing here are because of Akhilesh Bhaiya and his family. We have a personal relationship with them,” Bali said.
Akhilesh was sacked a few days ago when he was asked what he thought of his rival Baghel, a former Mulayam confidante and once a security officer of MSY. Akhilesh laughed and said, “I don’t know who is fighting the BJP, but I am sure of my victory.”
Baghel thinks otherwise. He told TOI on Friday: “Getting Netaji (as MSY is affectionately called) to ask for votes shows that Akhilesh had given up. He initially said that he would be here only on March 10 (result day). ) but he and his family are here every day appealing for votes.”
The stakes are high and Karhal has become a prestige battle between the BJP and the SP. Satpal Yadav, a resident of Manikpur village, just 4 km from Mulayam’s village Saifai, said, “The Yadav family knows how important the fight is. They brought Netaji out for election campaign despite his old age and health issues.
Retired headmaster Raghuveer Dayal, who said he was “sure” of Akhilesh’s victory, justified his prediction. “But it will not be easy. It is clear that three generations of the Yadav family are campaigning. It also shows their nervousness.”
At Jain Inter College, security personnel brought in for elections have taken over the campus and classes have been called off. But the teenagers playing cricket nearby had no hesitation in answering the capital’s question: “Who will win”? 16-year-old Anshu Pal said, ‘Bhaiyya (Akhilesh), who else? His popularity is unmatched.”
On the road leading to the Karhal bypass, Vijay Kumar, who owns a shop in the street, explains it better. “Akhilesh has an inherent advantage over the BJP as he is considered to be ‘our apna’ and not an outsider like Bhagel, who also faces allegations of being a turncoat. He was with the SP earlier, right? Yes, Yadav lives here. His family is there. Neither (UP CM) Yogi nor Baghel.
From under the veil, Ajay Kumari said, “We don’t know politics, but whenever my husband approaches the Yadav family for some work, they reach out. Yeh ke hain (they are from here).”
Karhal has been an SP stronghold since 1993 with one exception – the seat went to the BJP in 2002. This time only three candidates are contesting from here after the Congress withdrew its candidate. Akhilesh Vs Baghel Vs BSP’s Kuldeep Narayan.
According to Samajwadi Party leaders, Yadavs have the largest share in the Mainpuri belt with around 3.5 lakh votes. Of the approximately 3.7 lakh voters in Karhal, the community has 1.44 lakh, followed by Shakyas at 35,000, Jatavs at 34,000, Kshatriyas at 25,000 and Muslims at 14,000.
Asked which way the wind is blowing in Karhal, SK Yadav riding a bike with a BJP flag said, “Look, if Akhilesh Bhaiya’s victory margin is less than 50,000 votes, we can say that he have lost.”
FacebookTwitterLinkedinE-mail
,