Comments
Kairana’s all five major candidates in the current Lok Sabha elections are from the same community.
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Hukum Singh — among those accused of inciting violence in the recent Muzaffarnagar riots — is a Gujjar. So is Kartar Singh Bhadana, contesting on a Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) ticket.
The same goes for Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP) Kanwar Hasan and the Samajwadi Party’s (SP) Nahid Hasan — both Muslims, but from the Gujjar community.
Completing the circle is the Aam Aadmi Party’s Sunil Kasana, also a Gujjar. That makes it an all-Gujjar show in Kairana. The constituency’s 14-lakh electorate comprises an estimated two lakh Gujjars and five lakh Muslims, of which around 1.5 lakh belong to the same community.
New tycoons A traditionally pastoral ethnic group, the Gujjars, while not as numerically dominant as the Jats or Yadavs, have prospered in recent times by venturing into organised dairying, stone quarrying, construction and real estate, especially in the National Capital Region. Kartar Singh Bhadana, originally from Faridabad in Haryana (his brother Avtar Singh is fighting from Congress there), owns the ‘Mount Kailash’ mineral water brand, apart from having interests in transport. His family was also one of the largest miners in the Aravali region before a Supreme Court ban clamped in 2009.
The BSP candidate from Bijnor this time, Malook Nagar, is the promoter of the Ghaziabad-based Nagar Dairy Pvt Ltd. His relative, Surendra Singh Nagar, is the owner of the much bigger Paras Dairy and the sitting BSP MP from Gautam Budh Nagar (Noida).
Not to be left behind, the BJP, too, has fielded a prominent Gujjar businessman from Amroha: Kanwar Singh Tanwar.
The party had, interestingly also considered Surendra Nagar for the seat after the BSP denied him a ticket.
A real estate magnate from Delhi’s Mehrauli-Chattarpur belt, Tanwar three years back organised a big fat wedding of his son at a reported cost of ₹250 crore.
The bride’s father Sukhbir Singh Jaunapuria — an ex-independent MLA who runs a Gurgaon-based realty firm SS Builders — also chipped in: by gifting the groom a seven-seater chopper no less!
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.