The electoral battlefield is completely ready for the second phase of Lok Sabha elections. All political parties have geared up for voting to be held on Friday, April 26. Now the stake is in the hands of the voters. In the second phase, voting will be held on 8 Lok Sabha seats of Uttar Pradesh. The hottest seat among these is Baghpat Lok Sabha seat. This seat was in the possession of BJP for the last two times. Baghpat seat, which was considered a strong stronghold of Rashtriya Lok Dal, was captured by BJP by snatching away the Jat leaders. With the entry of Narendra Modi in the Lok Sabha elections, the people here became disillusioned with the heirs of Chaudhary Charan Singh who were carrying on the political legacy and despite trying hard, RLD could not save its respect. However, now Rashtriya Lok Dal itself is in the lap of BJP. It remains to be seen how much impact Jayant Singh (earlier Jayant Choudhary), who is crossing the electoral hurdle with the help of BJP, can show in the voting to be held on Friday.
The special thing is that despite being a family seat, no member of the Chaudhary Charan Singh family is coming forward and contesting the elections from Baghpat. With this step of Jayant Singh, the ground for the message of RLD was prepared here. At present a triangular contest is being seen here. Dr. Rajkumar Sangwan is contesting for this seat from the alliance of Rashtriya Lok Dal and BJP. Amarpal Sharma from Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance and Praveen Bainsla from Bahujan Samaj Party are making their mark. Rajkumar Sangwan is an old soldier of Rashtriya Lok Dal. Contesting Lok Sabha elections for the first time. Amarpal Sharma has been MLA from Sahibabad and Praveen Bainsla has contested elections from Rohtas Nagar assembly seat of Delhi. Amarpal Sharma was earlier in BSP. He was elected MLA on BSP ticket only. He stayed in Congress for some days. Now in Samajwadi Party.
Baghpat Lok Sabha seat has been the stronghold of Chaudhary family
Baghpat Lok Sabha seat, adjacent to the Haryana border and extending from Delhi to Ghaziabad-Meerut, was once considered the seat of the Chaudhary Charan Singh family. For the first time in 1977, Chaudhary Charan Singh won from here on Janata Party ticket. He won from here three times in a row. In the 1980 elections, he was elected MP from here on Lok Dal ticket. After 1984, his son Ajit Singh came to this seat. However, Ajit Singh won the elections twice on Janata Dal ticket, once on Congress ticket and once as an independent. Ajit Singh won the elections 4 times consecutively. Fed up with Ajit Singh’s defection policy, the people here elected BJP’s Sompal Shastri as their leader in his place in the 1998 elections. Learning from the defeat in his own stronghold, Ajit Singh contested the 1999 elections from his father’s party Rashtriya Lok Dal and the people here once again gave him their love. In this way, Ajit Singh won elections thrice in a row till 2009 on RLD ticket. Ajit Singh kept winning the elections but he did not change his attitude. Today in that party and tomorrow in that group. He enjoyed the post of Union Minister while being in every political party.
In the 2014 elections, the effect of Narendra Modi’s wind was also seen in Baghpat and the people here directly put him at the third position, electing him as MP 7 times. BJP’s Satyapal Singh won this election by more than 2 lakh votes. Ghulam Mohammad of Samajwadi Party was at second place and Ajit Singh was at third place. Ajit Singh got only 1.99 lakh votes. In the 2019 elections, Jayant Chaudhary tried his luck from here and sought votes from the public invoking his father and grandfather, but this time also the people of Baghpat completely rejected the Chaudhary family and made Satyapal Singh win. This time BJP got 5.25 lakh votes.
However, the people of Baghpat are not able to digest BJP joining hands with RLD. There are 5 assembly seats in Baghpat Lok Sabha constituency. Among these, BJP has control over Baghpat, Baraut and Modinagar seats. There are Rashtriya Lok Dal MLAs from Chhaprauli and Siwalkhas seats.
caste equations
The number of voters in Baghpat Lok Sabha seat is 16,40,278. Of these, there are approximately 1.75 lakh Brahmin Tyagis, approximately 3.75 lakh Muslims, 3.50 Jats and 3.5 lakh Dalit voters. The number of Yadavs, Gurjars and Rajputs is 2.10 lakh. And all three are in equal proportion. There are approximately 30 thousand Saini voters.
The Jat community in Baghpat is divided into two groups – Lok Dal and Tikait group. Tikait group is already angry with BJP regarding the farmers’ movement. Current MP Satyapal Singh has distanced himself from the election after being denied the ticket. There has been a figure of 36 between BJP and Lok Dal since the beginning, hence BJP workers and leaders are allying with Lok Dal only to show off to the high command. Internally, Rajkumar is undermining Sangwan. Vaishya voters also never supported Lok Dal. Former Governor of Bihar Satyapal Malik himself is from Baghpat district and is openly opposing BJP.
On the other hand, Brahmin and Tyagi voters are openly supporting SP-Congress alliance candidate Amarpal Sharma. Amarpal Sharma may also get support from Muslim and to some extent Dalit voters. Yadav community has always been voting for SP. Therefore, Amarpal Sharma is seen to be the strongest among these three at this time.
Bahujan Samaj Party has tried to woo the Dalit vote bank as well as the Gurjar voters by giving ticket to Praveen Bainsla from the Gurjar community. But his efforts seem to be causing loss to RLD only.
Displeasure with Chaudhary family
Senior journalist Yogesh Sharma, who has a deep hold on the politics of Modinagar, said that Brahmin and Tyagi votes are highest in Modinagar. And both the communities are seen standing with Amarpal Sharma. Yogesh Sharma says that this time BJP workers themselves can be seen speaking openly against this alliance. Neither the people of Lok Dal nor BJP are able to digest this alliance. Because a few days ago both the parties openly criticized each other.
Yogesh Sharma says that if we review the last two Lok Sabha elections, the Jat community is not at all happy with the Chaudhary family. If even a small part of the total Jat voters goes towards the SP-Congress alliance and the vote of the Muslim community also falls in favor of Amarpal Sharma, then surely like every time this seat will prove to be a dream for the Rashtriya Lok Dal. And perhaps the Chaudhary family has already realized this, that is why Jayant Singh has kept himself away from the elections. Apart from Baghpat, Jayant Chaudhary has also tasted defeat from Mathura.
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Tags: 2024 Lok Sabha Elections, baghpat lok sabha election, Baghpat news, Loksabha Election 2024, Loksabha Elections
FIRST PUBLISHED: April 24, 2024, 14:31 IST