ETAWAH/KANNAUJ: While being on Lucknow-Agra Expressway, the smoke billowing from the chimneys of ‘eent bhattas’ (brick kilns) far on the horizon makes it clear that Etawah is drawing closer. The manufacturing hub of bricks, Etawah draws its name from ‘eent’ (brick).
This nerve centre of Yadav chieftain Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi movement throws out a few contradictions of life. For example, Etawah, once known as the land of “Bihad’ (the dense network of ravines along river Chambal) and home to some of the most dreaded dacoit gangs of yore, also enjoys an illustrious lineage of luminous instrumental music Gharana -- Sitar Gharana – also known as Etawah Gharana or Imdad Khani Gharana after noted Sitar exponent Imdad Khan.
Moreover, Etawah has one more claim to fame. It is the confluence of the Yamuna, one of the most polluted rivers in the country, and Chambal, the cleanest of all.
Etawah has been the political hotbed of Yadavs who established their unchallenged dominance after the rise of SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav. He, under the tutelage of the likes of Ram Manohar Lohia, was elected MLA in 1967 from the Jaswant Nagar assembly for the first time.
With clean and wide roads, a kicking and alive Etawah is bustling with activity at 10 am. Each tea stall on the outskirts and deep into villages is an adda witnessing spirited debates over prospects of the Samajwadi Party and the ruling BJP which had won two of the three assembly seats in the district under sweeping Modi wave in 2017. While BJP had bagged Eatwah, Bharthana, Jaswantnagar had gone to Shivpal Yadav of SP with a margin of 52000 despite the peaking family feud in Yadav clan in 2017.
In the current elections, all three Etawah, Barthana and Jawantnagar are poised for a direct fight is between SP and BJP. Shivpal Yadav, who had parted ways from SP in 2018 over the family feud and floated Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party-Lohia. He is now fighting from Jaswantnagar again on the SP symbol following his alliance with SP.
Since 1967, Jaswantnagar constituency has been represented by the Mulayam clan except 1969 and 1980 when Congress had won from here.
Heading towards Jaswantnagar, at the bus stand, as one begins an interaction with a group of people sitting at a tea stall, the discourse centers around Shivpal Yadav. However, BJP has fielded Vivek Shakya and BSP Brijendra Pratap Singh.
“We will vote for Shivpal Yadav, who has done a lot of development here,” says Sumit Mishra, a trader, based in Rainagar locality. Expressing a similar sentiment, Badruddin Farooqui, 72 of Mohalla Sarai, explains: “Shivpal, the four-time MLA, is found always standing by the side of his people – both in their grief and happiness.” As per Farooqui, Shivpal has no challenge in Jaswantnagar. Farooqui’s claim gets weight when Agam Sharma, a cloth merchant, and a BJP supporter, concedes that only Shivpal will win from Jaswantnagar, however, the BJP candidate is likely to get a respectable chunk of votes as he is young and comes from the Shakya community which makes 6 per cent of the population.
On the issues, voters in Jaswantnagar feel with Shivpal in the fray, no issue matters. But a few feel unemployment is an issue. “We need to have industry so that youth of Jaswantnagar can get jobs,” says Manoj Gupta, a goldsmith who praises the Yogi government in the same breath over good roads and law and order, free ration, free vaccine, and welfare schemes.
Meanwhile, as one enters the Etawah, which is a reserved constituency, people portray a different picture. “It will not be a cakewalk for SP as many of Mulayam and Shivpal supporters have gone to the BJP and rest are not backing SP candidate as they are miffed with Shivpal’s humiliation by Akhilesh who has left just Jaswantnagar seat from him,” says Krishna Murari Gupta, a local trader. “So obstacles in the path of sitting BJP MLA and candidate Sarita Bhadauria are not much now,” he says.
The Yadav family feud is not the only factor. Shlok Tripathi and Lokesh Dixit, both in their late 20s and enjoying kachauri at a kiosk, want to vote for improved law and order. Tina Yadav in the Etawah market is happy with the free ration scheme. For Om Prakash Singh, 54, free vaccination drive has been a daunting task which the government is doing meticulously to save lives from the deadly corona. “Jaan hai to Jahan hai (health is wealth). If we will live then only will be able to do anything,” he says.
However, in the rural pockets – both in Etawah and Bharthana-- the issue of stray cattle is overriding. Paan Singh Yadav of Brijrajnagar in Bharthana (reserved seat), votes for whosoever will protect crops from stray cattle. The contest is triangular in Bharthana with BJP fielding Siddharth Shankar Dohre who is banking upon the majority Dohre community and SP and BSP have fielded candidates from Jatav community. In such a situation, Brahmin, Thakur, and Baniya communities will play a deciding role in Bharthana.
As one proceeds further on Lucknow-Agra Expressway, the perfume capital of India Kannauj with three assembly segments – Kannauj Sadar (SC), Tirwa and Chhibramau — appears on the poll arena.
In previous 2017 elections, BJP could win two – Tirwa and Chhibramau-- of the three seats. It failed to make forays into Kannauj Sadar, an SP stronghold and also the ‘Karmabhoomi’ of Samajwadi ideologue Ram Manohar Lohia.
Kannauj was made a district in 1997 and SP has been winning Kannauj Sadar since then. But this time, to breach the SP fortress, BJP has fielded former police commissioner Aseem Arun who is challenging the might of two-time SP MLA Anil Dohre. In 2017, Dohre had defeated the BJP candidate by a thin margin of 2454 votes.
“The party has reposed faith in me and I am doing my best to come up to the expectations of the party and people. Last time, we lost the seat by a narrow margin which we will make up this time. I belong to Kannauj and remained always connected to my roots here. My police background will also give me an edge,” says Aseem Arun, the BJP candidate busy in a door-to-door campaign. BJP had won the seat three times from 1991 to 1996 during the temple movement, whereas, SP has been winning it since 2007. Despite being a reserved seat, BSP could never register its presence here.
However, the voters feel that development is the issue in Kannauj Sadar. “Education, employment, roads and potable water are the issues here,” says advocate Anil Dwivedi of Sipahi Thakur locality.
Other issues include recession in the perfume industry, potato glut, and unemployment. Kannauj has over 200 small, medium and large manufacturing units of perfume. The perfume traders, who export ‘ittra’ worth Rs 100 crore annually, claim that the trade could not reach the heights owing to pandemic hardships but appreciate Yogi government’s efforts to give a global market to ‘ittra’ through One District One product scheme.
Law and order coupled with benefits of welfare schemes reaching the common man also have some traction on the ground in Kannauj. But the menace of stray animals has left the farmers’ community a harried lot.