Bhatta-Parsaul debacle: Rahul entered late, left early
by Pallavi Polanki Mar 8, 2012
Bhatta-Parsaul was Rahul's for the taking, but what went wrong?
Bhatta-Parsaul – the twin villages in Western Uttar Pradesh that were
at the centre of last year's farmer agitation—was pegged as the
battleground between the young prince and the reigning queen.
The contest should have been a dream win for the young Gandhi who had
charmed the farmers by joining cause with them by famously sneaking
into Bhatta on a bike in the early hours of the morning, giving the
police cordon the slip.
In a shock defeat for the Congress, its candidate from Jewar—where the
two villages are located—Dhirendra Singh fell short of the BSP's
Vedram Bhati by 9,500 votes. Vedram got 67,524, Singh 58,024 followed
by Samajwadi Party's Bijendra Singh Bhati at 35,166.
Residents of Bhatta village say that while they support the Congress
they are disappointed with the party. Pawan Kumar (left), Naveen
Chaudhury (third from left), Rahul Kaushik (fourth from left) and
Shouhin Khan (right) - with steel rods on his leg after it was hit by
a bullet during the police firing on agitating farmers in May. Naresh
Sharma/Firstpost
Why was Rahul not able to translate massive crowds he pulled into
votes? After such a sensational launch into UP's political
landscape—Mayawati almost handed him the opportunity on a platter—why
did the campaign lose its hold over the people?
A day after votes were counted, the residents of the twin villages
remain stunned by the return of the BSP. Says Om Veer Singh, Bhatta's
village head, with a wry smile, "Vedram is also probably wondering
where he got all these votes. He never once showed his face here
during the campaign. If you had asked him before the results were
declared, how many votes he would have got, he would have said not
more than 50,000."
The fight for Jewar, say residents of Bhatta, had always been between
the Congress' Dhirendra (a thakur) and the Samajwadi Party's (SP)
Bijendra Bhati (a Gujjar).
"In a matter of three-four days, the game changed. When the Gujjars,
who until last week were with the SP candidate, realised that
Dhirendra was looking more and more like the winning candidate, they
decided to go with the BSP candidate (who is also a Gujjar)," says
Devender Mallik, a resident of Bhatta.
The logic behind going with the Vedram Bhati, explains Om Veer Singh,
is that given BSP's assured Jatav (Mayawati's most loyal voters) vote,
Vedram was a safer bet for the Gujjars to get the winning numbers.
"And so 80 percent of the Gujjar vote, fled from SP's Bijendra to go
with BSP's Vedram. Gujjars always vote for their candidates."
The cold calculation of caste, which continues to be the crucial
factor for voters in Uttar Pradesh, seems to have cost the Congress
dearly.
However, Neetu, a farmer who has made a small fortune by selling part
of his land, explains why the support for Mayawati in Jewar goes
beyond just caste.
"Vedram has won on the strength of Mayawati. It is thanks to her that
farmers are living a new lifestyle now. Bullock carts have been
replaced by SUVs. Now houses in villages are being fitted with ACs
(air conditioners). Farmers live in big houses, have big cars."
Many believe, the farmer agitation represented only a minority of the
farmers, while the majority had no quarrel with Mayawati.
And that minority came from Bhatta-Parsaul and adjoining villages. But
even there, Rahul lost votes. Prominent among the 16 other candidates
who contested from Jewar, was Manveer Singh Tevatia, the man who led
the three-month long farmer agitation against Mayawati government's
land acquisition policy
Tellingly, Bhatta gave Manveer Singh who had spearheaded the agitation
got 564, the Congress candidate 454 votes.
There is a strong sense of disappointment among farmers here for Rahul
Gandhi, who they perceive as someone who didn't follow up on his
promises.
"He gave the patient the injection, but he didn't stay long enough to
find out if the patient survived. It was political game for the
Congress," says Rahul Kaushik, who was among those injured during
police firing.
"The farmer agitation was going for more than three months. Why didn't
the Congress support us then? They only came after the police had
fired on us," he adds.
Another reason for the disenchantment with Rahul Gandhi, one Pandey
says, "The cases that were filed against farmers during the agitation
have not been dropped. If the Railway police, which is under the
Centre, had dropped the cases against the farmers for the Rail roko,
perhaps the BSP too would have dropped cases against the farmers. But
there has been no respite for the farmers from Centre nor the state.
Nine farmers are still languishing in jail and many more have received
notices from the court."
However, Pawan Kumar, a shopkeeper whose shop was looted and damaged
during the police firing, says he supports the Congress.
"Congress saved our lives. Farmers had fled the villages and were
hiding in fields after the police fired on us. No other leader came to
help us in that grave hour. But Rahul came. He made sure that farmers
could return to their homes," he says.
A die-hard Congress supporter, Chandraban Mallik, a former village
headman from Parsaul says, "The 58,000 votes that the Congress has got
from Jewar is a record in itself. Never before from this region has
Congress performed this well. And this was the impact of Rahul Gandhi.
But unfortunately, we weren't able to reach our message to more people
in time."
The mood in Congress candidate Dhirendra Singh's sprawling
residence-cum-office in Rabupur, located about 6 km from Parsaul, is
one of shocked disbelief. He was expected to win by a margin of 20,000
votes.
A dejected Dhirendra, forces a smile when he says, "Just the way
crowds gather in a house where someone has just died, people are
coming to see me."
His eyes remain glued to the election result sheets of Jewar.
Describing it as "unexpected", he says, "The BSP is a cadre-based
party, they have men at the booth level. The Congress as Rahul Gandhi
said has organisational weaknesses."
Asked about why Rahul's appeal didn't make a bigger impact, Singh
says, "In UP, caste is big factor. The election in the end goes in
favour of money power and caste equations…given the circumstances,
getting more 58,000 votes is an achievement in itself."
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