Uttar Pradesh: Apna Dal’s Anupriya Patel eyes hattrick in Mirzapur

Mirzapur: Mirzapur: 2014 did not just mark a watershed moment for the BJP in UP as it won with a landslide 71 seats, but also proved life-changing for a young MLA then, who is now one of the youngest Union ministers — Anupriya Patel. Her party, the Apna Dal (S), has become one of the most solid allies of the BJP in UP since then after winning both the LS seats allotted to it. Today, it has the third highest number of MLAs in the state assembly after the BJP and Samajwadi Party.

As Patel seeks her third straight tenure from her seat in Mirzapur, caste math and the execution of some central welfare schemes are likely to play in her favour. But, in this seat, which has a 25% Dalit and tribal population, she is also being accused of being biased towards her loyal Kurmi base and for patchy implementation of some crucial schemes for tribals like the Jal Jeevan Mission. With 49% population belonging to OBCs and 25% to the SC/ST communities, the BJP’s focus on consolidating their votes was also visible in PM Narendra Modi’s address here on Sunday, wherein he raked up SP’s 2012 and 2014 manifesto promises of providing reservations to Muslims on the lines of the reservations given to backwards, Dalits and tribals.

Apart from Mirzapur, the AD(S) is also contesting from neighbouring Robertsganj which has a much higher tribal population.

SP has fielded Ramesh Chand Bind, the BJP MP from Bhadohi, who switched to the SP after being denied a ticket. While SP would hope his candidature would make a large part of the Bind or Nishad/boatmen community to rally behind the party apart from Yadavs and Muslims, it will not be easy. Manju, a local who hails from the community, speaks for her entire basti in Ojhala, when she points at the houses built under the PM Awas scheme, and pledges to vote for the BJP. There is a slight resentment that the BJP did not yet fulfil its promise of changing the community’s status from OBC to SC, but the benefits of the schemes seem to outweigh the resentment.

Another Nishad shopkeeper, Ram Lakhan Nishad talks about expressways in UP with a childlike enthusiasm, linking its construction to the BJP’s claimed plank of development. “We had never thought we would get to travel on such roads! For us, it is a huge thing. Our vote will go for development,” he says. BJP’s focus on developing the Maa Vindhyavasini temple as a corridor is also providing a more localised Hindutva push.