Usual poll humdrum absent, why Opposition may have missed the boat in western UP

“Yeh ekdam thanda chunaav hai (This is not an exciting election).” More than one person had this to say in west UP, where polling for the Lok Sabha elections in eight constituencies will be held on April 19.

In the past, west UP has set the tempo for the rest of the state to follow. This time it is a low-decibel election. There are few posters, hardly any visible banners, and no “Jai Shree Ram” slogans by BJP karyakartas on the streets. Unlike the last two times, this is also not a Hindu-Muslim or an India-Pakistan election and everyone says this, including the candidates.

The effects of the 2013 Muzaffarnagar communal riots cast a long shadow on the general elections the following year as Hindus consolidated in favour of the BJP. Five years later, the Pulwama attack generated a nationalistic fervour that influenced the outcome in the BJP’s favour. In comparison, this time one hears voices in west UP that say, “Bahut ho gaya Hindu-Muslim, rehna toh saath mein hai (A lot has happened over Hindu-Muslim issues, in the end, we have to co-exist).”

And yet — this too is a paradoxical reality of UP — the “Hinduisation of the subaltern classes” over the years is even more compelling than that of the upper castes and this is evident in the villages. In Bijnor’s Sikhreda village, BSP supporters — Scheduled Castes (SCs) and smaller communities such as Pals, Sainis, and Gujjars — are quite upfront. “We remain with the BSP, whether in power or not, but we will not vote for a Muslim candidate if the party has fielded one,” says one of them.

Nor is this an election where the Ram Mandir is a central poll issue in this region, surprising many. People express happiness at the construction of the long-awaited temple in Ayodhya but it is