BJP goes all out to prevent split in 'Jat' votes

As the polling draws closer on eight Lok Sabha seats in 'Jat' dominated western Uttar Pradesh, BJP is going all out to prevent a split in the 'Jat' votes.

Apparently fearing that the inclusion of the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) in the UP 'grand alliance' with Samajwadi Party (SP) and BSP, the saffron party has been harping on the 2013 Muzaffarnagar communal clashes between Muslims and Jats that left 62 persons dead and thousands of others displaced.

RLD president Ajeet Singh and his son Jayant Chaudhary were in the fray from 'Jat' dominated Muzaffarnagar and Baghpat LS constituencies respectively.

Political experts say that the grand alliance will romp home if there is a split in the 'Jat' votes as together with the Muslim and Jatav (SC) votes it can well be a winning combination on the eight LS seats going to the polls in the first phase of polling on April 11.

No wonder both prime minister Narendra Modi and UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath referred to the communal riots and said that Ajeet Singh had ''sided'' with the Muslims and ''ditched'' the 'jats'.

Ajeet Singh has been trying to establish an emotive chord with the 'jats' saying that it may be his last elections and that he has decided to pass on the mantle to his son Jayant.

''Jats are divided....on one hand is the legacy of former prime minister Chaudhary Charan Singh and on the other the riots...it is possible that BJP and RLD will share the jat votes,'' says Guruvachan Singh, a local scribe, who also hails from the same community.

'Jats' form around 10 to 30 per cent of the total electorate in the eight LS constituencies, where polling would be held in the first phase. In 2014 BJP had swept the 'Jat' belt.