They’ve built the temple; that’s great. But if I fall sick, will the Lord Ram treat me?” asked a Thakur farmer in Raewa village on the Agra-Fatehpur Sikri Road, refusing to be named because “these people will put me in jail.”

Raewa is a predominantly Thakur village with some Jatavs, Jats, and other castes, besides a handful of Muslim inhabitants. Here, the majority, who had overwhelmingly supported the BJP, has now turned vehemently against the saffron party and is openly pledging to vote for the Congress candidate, Ramnath Sikarwar, who is from the village of Kheragarh and has radical credentials to charm his voters. Sikarwar, who goes by the popular epithet ‘Fauji Baba’, often sleeps in a temple and runs his campaign on a bicycle.

Jat influence

Further challenging the BJP candidate and sitting MP Raj Kumar Chahar is the candidature of former MP and sitting MLA from Bah, Chowdhury Babulal’s son, Ramshwar Chowdhury. Rameshwar is contesting as an independent and attracting the Jats, whose support has been vital for the BJP.

This is a seat that the BJP should have been fairly confident about, considering that the party had won it by a staggering 4,95,065 votes in the 2019 elections. Chahar had defeated the Congress candidate, actor Raj Babbar, who could secure barely 1,72,082 votes as compared to Chahar’s 6,67,147 votes.

But Chahar is in trouble this time around, and neither PM Narendra Modi’s charisma nor Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s popularity or the BJP’s thrust on national and emotive issues — Ram Temple, Article 370, Muslims, Mangalsutra — is helping Chahar. Local issues of unemployment, scarcity of water in this constituency bordering Rajasthan, and the absence of schools for girls are the voters’ primary concerns. And they are totally put off by the sitting MP, Chahar.

Bethan Lal from Gopau village had voted for the BJP in 2019, and he is quite happy with both Modi and CM Yogi. But he is still not going to vote for the BJP this time.

“Modi and Yogi are fine, but why have they fielded this useless fellow? He is not to be seen anywhere and is mostly absent. Where do we go if we have a problem? The local representative should be here to support us. We will support Fauji Baba this time,” said Bethan Lal.

‘Jati-vaad (casteism)’, according to Bethan Lal, is prevailing here. “Ram Niwas Sharma (BSP) candidate will get the support of Jatavs and some Brahmins because Behenji (Mayawati) has fielded him and he himself is a Brahmin. Fauji Baba is getting a lot of support from Thakurs, and Rameshwar Chowdhury will get the Jat votes,” he said.

New trend

According to local journalist and RSS worker Hemendra Faujdar, this is an election marred by voter apathy and practically no interest in national issues.

“The voters are just not interested in emotive or ideological issues this time. We had seen a surge for Modiji in the last two elections, but this time, either people are not interested or, like in this particular constituency, they are voting purely on local issues. This is a new trend in this election,” Faujdar said.

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