Wrestlers’ protest: Parties exercise caution over ramifications ahead of Lok Sabha polls

With less than 12 months to go for the next general elections, political ramifications of the wrestlers’ agitation in over three dozen Lok Sabha constituencies of Jat influence spread across north India have forced political parties to firm up their position on the issue with extreme caution.

The agitation has been led by internationally acclaimed wrestlers like Sakshi Malik, Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia. The Olympians and many others in the group who have been insisting on the arrest of BJP MP and Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh belong to the Jat community — an influential intermediary caste with land holdings.

After Delhi Police filed FIR in the case, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi was one of the first politicians to meet the protesters to express solidarity. Singh struck back accusing Haryana Congress MP Deepender Hooda of orchestrating a political ‘conspiracy’ against him. The latter threatened to file a defamation case against Singh for dragging his name into the controversy.

What started as an agitation to seek justice for young athletes soon turned into a political slugfest.

Also Read | Congress accuses govt of 'protecting' accused of sexual exploitation, questions Modi's claims on women security

A BJP leader from Haryana admits as much. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, he said, the controversy may impact the political discourse in Haryana, considering prominent faces leading the agitation belong to the state.

“In Assembly polls, a section of the Jats may rally around Bhupinder Hooda and his son, but every action also has a counter-reaction”; he says, indicating the protest may also engender counter-polarisation in BJP’s favour.

Haryana Assembly polls are due next year. Jats comprise 27% of the population and have been a dominant social group in the state’s politics. In the last 10 years, however, BJP led by Chief Minister Manohar Khattar has successfully countered Jat dominance by building alternative social coalitions and counter-mobilisation with the remaining 73% non-Jat population- to reap electoral dividends both in Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

Outside Haryana, the Jat influence in heartland politics is spread across Rajasthan, Delhi, and western Uttar Pradesh. The community influences electoral outcomes in 35 to 40 Lok Sabha constituencies. And BJP has won an overwhelming majority of these seats- both in the 2014 and 2019 general elections.

In fact, the party has been the biggest beneficiary of the Jat mobilisation in the last 10 years. So much so, that even in the face of farmer agitation, the party emerged as the single largest party in Jat-dominated west UP.

The assessment this time too is that the electoral impact of the wrestlers' agitation may be limited to the Haryana Assembly polls.

“However, the catch is that the protests if they grow beyond the realm of caste and provincial considerations could have a much wider impact”, says Dr Sudhir Panwar, who contested 2017 Assembly polls from a Jat-dominated seat in west UP on Samajwadi Party ticket.

“Precisely the reason why, despite bad optics, the administration acted swiftly the moment decided to hold Mahila-Mahapanchayat and called upon women for support,” he adds.

Singh, on the other hand, remains defiant. Using the controversy to drum up political support in his area of influence in central UP, his followers are planning a show of strength in Ayodhya on June 5.

BJP as a party has let Singh defend himself in his individual capacity as the WFI president. In the process, the party has sought to insulate itself from any collateral damages for now.