LUCKNOW: After a humiliating defeat in Gorakhpur and Phoolpur Lok Sabha by-elections, the loss in the recently concluded Kairana by-election is yet another major setback for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Uttar Pradesh.
The politically and communally sensitive Kairana seat had 16 lakh voters including 5.5 lakh Muslims, 2.5 lakh Dalit voters and 1.5 lakh Jats.
Kairana, a Muslim majority constituency is right next to Muzaffarnagar, the location where both the Jat -Muslim communities lived peacefully for generations until the September 2013 riots that changed everything.
In an attempt to bridge the divide between two communities that strained post Muzaffarnagar phase, the new ‘Mahagathbandhan’ decided that the Ajit Singh-led RLD, a Jat-dominated party would put up a Muslim candidate Tabassum Hasan.
Jats, who, in the recent past moved towards the BJP and were considered as cadres of Hindutva mobilisation for the saffron politics now return back again to Ajit Singh-led RLD.
Also, a section of Dalits are also come back to the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samajwadi Party (BSP). Bhim Army leader Chandrashekhar, who was in jail, also issued an appeal to Dalit voters to support Tabassum Hasan.
Jats, Dalits and Muslims (JDM) voted together for the candidates fielded by the RLD and the SP and this combination was in fact the reason that worked well to oust the saffron party.
The grand coalition candidate Tabassum Hasan of the RLD won Kairana and the new Jat-Muslim-Dalit alliance emerged victorious.
Winning Kairana becomes a matter of prestige for PM Modi led BJP government but for the sweetness of greater power, the saffron party ignores the local sugarcane issue.