New Delhi: As Uttar Pradesh heads to polls next month, a Jat outfit along with khap panchayats in communally sensitive western UP, have sounded the poll bugle against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
On Sunday, the Akhil Bhartiya Jat Aarakshan Sangarsh Samiti (ABJASS), the organization that spearheaded the Jat reservation agitation in Haryana last year, held a ‘Jat Sankalp Rally’ in Muzaffarnagar district and urged members of the community to vote for the strongest non-BJP candidate in their respective constituencies.
While Jats make up only around 8-9% of the state’s population, their concentration in key assembly seats in western UP makes them an important voting bloc.
Sunday’s rally was held in Muzaffarnagar’s Kharad village, which is also the native village of ABJASS national president Yashpal Malik. ABJASS has called on khap panchayats from all over the region.
Speaking to News18, Malik said, “After last year’s agitation, it is clear to us that the BJP does not have the Jat community’s best interests at heart. They only use us for political gains. They filed false cases against thousands of Jats and even used some of their party workers to unleash violence against us.”
“Last year, after the agitation, I met Prime Minister Narendra Modi who assured us that reservations would be given to Jats but the government never fulfilled its promise. They will now learn that Jats across the country stand in solidarity with each other. If they oppress Jats in Haryana, their brothers in western UP will not stay silent. Jats here will vote against the BJP en mass,” he added.
Malik said western UP will hold the key in the upcoming assembly elections and claimed that Jats hold the “swing vote” in at least 125 constituencies here. “In many seats, Muslims and Dalits are present in large numbers. These groups never vote for the BJP so they have been relying on Jats. They won the Jat vote in western UP by creating communal tension. If Jats abandon them, which they will, then BJP will not even win 10 seats in west UP,” he said.
The BJP, meanwhile, rejected the claim that it was ‘anti-Jat’. BJP MP from Baghpat and prominent Jat leader Satyapal Singh said, “I understand the concerns that Malik sahib has. All their demands are valid and the government is working towards resolving them. However, it is inaccurate to say that we have betrayed Jats in any way. We must remember that when Jat reservations were first introduced, it was done under the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. Even state governments that have introduced quotas have been BJP-ruled. We stand with all sections of society that have been left behind in the development process.”