Mafia dons and
community leaders rule the roost in UP’s fractured electorate.
Avinash Dutt examines why they are so much in demand
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Naresh
Agarwal
Photo Nirala |
Ajit
Singh
Photo Sharad Saxena |
Sonelal
Patel
Photo Nirala |
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'When political
parties stopped raising public issues and got drowned in
corruption, individual leaders became important. People know that
all parties are alike and would do nothing for development, so
they elect leaders who can stand by them in their hour of need,'
says a veteran leader |
Uttar Pradesh will
go to polls in early 2007 to elect a new legislative Assembly and a
new chief minister. All eyes are on Samajwadi Party (SP) president Mulayam
Singh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati. There are, of
course, other players in the circus that is UP politics.
And these lesser
players are very important — neither of the big two want to antagonise
them. Come election time and the inexorable arithmetic of electoral
politics — especially in a politically fragmented state like UP
— ensures that the smaller players enjoy a clout disproportionate
to their stature. Quite aware how important they are in the power game,
the smaller players have started dropping hints that they are in the
market. Unencumbered by ideology or any sense of commitment to the electorate,
these leaders adjust their sails to catch the wind regardless of the
direction in which it blows.
There is no dearth
of powerbrokers in UP, and leading the pack is Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD)
president and mp from Baghpat, Ajit Singh. Singh was a Cabinet minister
in the VP Singh, Chandrashekhar, PV Narsimharao and Atal Behari Vajpayee
governments. This truly enviable series of stints at the Centre translated
into plenty of clout for his partymen at the state level — in
successive governments with Kalyan Singh, Rajnath Singh, Ramprakash
Gupta, Mayawati and now Mulayam Singh Yadav at the helm.
A bachelor’s
degree in engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
and a masters from the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, never
came in the way of using realpolitik to his advantage. Singh, who became
a Rajya Sabha member in 1986, a year before his father’s death,
is known to drive a hard bargain.
About a year after
his father’s death, Singh formed Lok Dal (a) and the following
year, he merged with the Janta Party. Shortly thereafter he became part
of the Janata Dal and after cabinet stints with a few more governments,
he joined the Congress to become a minister in the PV Narasimha Rao
cabinet. Adept at sensing which way the wind is blowing, he resigned
from Congress in 1996. In 1997 he came back to Lok Sabha with the BJP’s
support, and went on to become a minister in the Vajpayee cabinet in
2001.
Only to resign a
year before the next general elections. Singh contested the 2004 elections
with sp’s support and is currently breaking bread with Mulayam
Singh Yadav.
“Till when?
Perhaps only God knows,” remarks Uttar Pradesh Congress Legislative
Party leader Pramod Tiwari. “In the name of anti-Congressism,
all kinds of opportunists and mafia dons joined hands to grab power,”
laments Tiwari. He should know — the Congress is yet to recover
from the deadly blow in 1997 when 17 of its mlas formed the Loktantrik
Congress Party to support the Kalyan Singh government.
POWER
PLAY |
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Politicians
with criminal records and community and caste strongholds
are being wooed ahead of Assembly elections |
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Leading
the pack is RLD president and mp from Baghpat, Ajit Singh |
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The
leaders have no qualms in switching parties and are brazen
about pursuing power |
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The electorate has lost faith in mainstream parties and elects
those it can count on in times of need |
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If Ajit Singh’s
RLD is the largest free-floating entity in UP, there are many smaller
outfits which are crucial in propping up the party in power in Lucknow.
For a price of course. Eastern UP’s controversial Brahmin leader
Harishankar Tiwari is much sought after. Tiwari first entered the Uttar
Pradesh Legislative Assembly in 1985 as an independent and has continued
to be a member ever since then. He later joined the Congress and went
on to become a minister in 1997 after he split the party with 22 other
mlas including Naresh Agrawal and Amarmani Tripathi.
“What’s
wrong in joining hands with different political parties? After all,
every party is constitutionally lawful,” is how Tripathi, now
the entertainment tax, stamp and civil defence minister, famously explained
his promiscuity. When this soft-spoken leader became a minister for
the first time in 1997, he was facing 27 police cases, including nine
for murder, 10 for attempted murder and three each for dacoity and kidnapping.
While he topped the police-case statistics, he faced good competition
in Kalyan Singh’s cabinet from others, including independent Thakur
mla Raghuraj Pratap Singh aka Raja Bhaiya, Amarmani Tripathi and Markandey
Chand.
What is the secret
behind unflinching public support to dons and community leaders? A 66-year-old
veteran explains, “When political parties stopped raising public
issues and got drowned in corruption, individual leaders started becoming
important. People know that all political parties are alike and none
would do anything for development, so they elect leaders who can stand
by them in their hour of need.”
Once again, ahead
of elections, Tiwari is keeping quiet on the subject of the good and
ills of any political party. “Mujhse kewal mere bare me pucho,”
(ask me only about myself) he said. The minister refused to say a word
against the BSP, the Congress or the BJP. Tiwari’s supporters
claim that he stands tallest in the 12-percent-strong Brahmin community,
which has a sizeable share in 120 state Assembly segments. His detractors
rubbish the claim but concede that in Tiwari’s home district of
Gorakhpur, he can not only win his seat but also influence a few neighbouring
ones.
“All Tiwari
seeks is tickets for himself and son, a Legislative Council seat for
his nephew Ganesh Shanker Pandey, a ministerial berth and no interference
in Gorakhpur where he runs a parallel government,” says a senior
Congress leader.
Another leader
being watched keenly is the state transport minister, Naresh Agarwal.
Like Tiwari, Agarwal became member of the state Assembly as a Congress
mla in 1980 and returned to the house twice — once as an independent
and once with sp. Known for his negotiating skills, the leader from
Hardoi proves his worth when it comes to engineering defections.
State Food and Civil
Supplies Minister Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiya, once considered
close to BJP president Rajnath Singh, first became an mla in 1993. His
name still invokes terror in Pratapgarh district where he is the government.
The strongman from Kunda picked a fight against Mayawati who ensured
that thousands of acres of his land got transferred to a bird sanctuary
and he, along with his father, was jailed under pota. Mulayam not only
ensured that all charges against him were dropped, but also used him
to gather support from the Thakurs. Recently, his father Raja Sahib
Bhadri, as his supporters call him, was sentenced five years imprisonment
while Raja Bhaiya was released after the government witness turned hostile.
Once Mayawati’s
archenemy, Raja Bhaiya is lying low and avoiding going on record against
the BSP chief. On her part, Mayawati said at a press conference after
he was exonerated: “Raja Bhaiya should use the opportunity to
mend his ways.” Quite a mellow response from the lady who once
did everything in her power to put Raja Bhaiya behind bars.
It is not just
the dons and established leaders who are on the lookout for beneficial
alliances. Community leaders like Apna Dal president Sonelal Patel are
not far behind. Patel is getting ready to “decide the ruler”.
A predominantly
Kurmi party, Apna Dal may not have many electoral victories to its credit
but it derives its clout from its ability to dent the winning candidate’s
votebank. “No Kurmi candidate who does not have Apna Dal’s
backing will be allowed to win,” Patel declares.
Breakaway BJP leader
Uma Bharti has been relying greatly on her alliance with Apna Dal to
make forays in UP in the coming elections. Her candidate contested against
Congress president Sonia Gandhi in Rae Bareli by-elections on an Apna
Dal ticket. After elections, Patel suddenly announced that he was parting
ways with Bharti and joining hands with Janata Dal (u), which in turn
has announced that it is not going to contest with the NDA.
“Our only
aim is to get power. Without getting power, Kurmis cannot succeed,”
Patel said. “I tell my people that Nehru became the pm and his
community grew by leaps and bounds. Yadavs made Mulayam Singh the cm
and they progressed. Now, if they want to get their due they should
create a party of their own.”
“People like
Sonelal Patel and Harishanker Tiwari are invaluable because of their
nuisance value. In a state where a party that gets 20 percent of the
total polled votes forms the government, factors that shift 1,000-2,000
votes here and there become crucial,” says a senior Congress leader.
“Such opportunism
has become a national phenomenon, but yes, it is visible in UP in its
worst form. Power has become the sole motive for everyone, it is just
that leaders like Ajit Singh and Harishanker Tiwari have no pretensions,”
says Faizabad based senior political analyst Sheetla Singh.
As the national
parties scour for accommodative allies to consolidate their vote share
in the upcoming polls in the state, who rules Uttar Pradesh could be
decided behind the scenes by these powerbrokers.
