ETAWAH: The 302-km-long Lucknow-Agra Expressway does not need any signage for motorists to know Etawah. The smoke spitting brick kilns can be seen from afar. UP’s brick hub and the nerve centre of SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi movement. The city has been the political hotbed for the Yadavs, a caste which established unchallenged dominance, especially after the rise of Mulayam Singh. He was first elected MLA in 1967 from Jaswant Nagar, now in Mainpuri Lok Sabha segment post-delimitation.
At 10 am, every tea stall on the outskirts of Etawah and its interiors share a similar picture. People are debating on the prospects of the SP-BSP alliance and also the BJP, which performed well in 2014. Etawah is poised for a direct fight between BJP’s Ram Shankar Katheria, sitting Agra MP and Kamlesh Katheria, son of former SP MP Prem Shankar Katheria — both Jatavs. Congress has fielded BJP turncoat and sitting Etawah MP Ashok Dohre.
A reserved seat with Dalits making 25% of the total population, Etawah is a case study for the Maya-Mulayam bonhomie. While the alliance is banking on Dalit-Yadav-Muslim votes, upper castes are rooting for the BJP. However, the well-off Yadavs, who rule the roost here, are just 10.6% of the population. As one foray deep into the constituency, a wide rural-urban divide is evident. While rural Etawah is batting for the ‘mahagathbandhan’, urban voters are advocating a second term for Narendra Modi.
“There has been no development since Akhilesh Bhaiyya lost in 2017. Even Modiji has not given jobs promised in 2014 and stray animals are a big problem,” says Akhtar Raza, 50, a trader selling locks and managing a small repairing centre at Besrehar rural. He is joined by son Rizwan, 28, a polytechnic diploma holder who manages the repair workshop. “Whatever he (Modi) did was for votes only. He has no concern for issues,” says Rizwan.
Asked whether the alliance has been received well by Yadavs and Dalits, they say: “Of course. More so, after Behenji (BSP chief Mayawati) and Netaji (Mulayam) shared the stage in Mainpuri,” said Kuldeep Singh Yadav, 45, a farmer. However, as one reaches out to the Dalits of Aminabad, which had witnessed an infamous massacre of a Dalit family in 2011, the differences surface. “Why should we waste our vote for mahagathbandhan when it is not going to form government at the Centre,” says Ram Kumar, 29, a class 10 pass out.
“The Dalit votes don’t decide the fate in this reserved seat. The upper castes and Muslims do. While upper castes dominate the demographics of Etawah, they tend to back BJP. Muslims are expected to go with alliance,” said political analyst Subhash Tripathi.