Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav with his wife and party leader Dimple Yadav.
Credit: PTI Photo
Kannauj, Uttar Pradesh: The fragrance emanating from the ‘Attar’ (perfume) from the manufacturing units in this town, which is often compared with Grasse in France and known as the ‘’Perfume City’’ in India, has acquired electoral odour these days as Samajwadi Party (SP) President Akhilesh Yadav seeks to avenge his wife Dimple Yadav’s loss here in 2019 Lok Sabha polls and wrest it from the BJP.
Locked in a tough contest and amid murmurs of resentment within his own party in this constituency, situated on the banks of the Ganga, Akhilesh has been trying hard to strike an emotional chord with the electorate by invoking his father and party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav with whom he had visited the town first time almost 24 years back.
‘’Netaji (Mulayam) brought me here for the first time and he had appealed to you (electorate) to make me a politician,’’ Akhilesh, who had entered active politics after winning the LS by-poll here in the year 2000, says in his election rallies.
‘’I did not, then, even know how to deliver a political speech but I got your (people) support,’’ he said.
Apparently Akhilesh realises that the contest is not easy. Dimple had lost to BJP’s Subrat Pathak by a slender margin in the 2019 LS poll from here. BJP has re-nominated Pathak, who has sought to liken the contest this time to an India-Pakistan cricket match. ‘’Now the electorate of Kannauj will get to see an India-Pakistan like contest,’’ Pathak had said after Akhilesh filed his nomination papers from here.
The caste equations of the constituency, which is known to be an SP stronghold, have made the contest an even one. While there are 4.5 lakh Yadav and Muslim voters in the constituency, who are more or less rooting for Akhilesh, there also are 2.5 lakh Brahmins and two lakh dalit voters, many of whom had voted for the BJP last time. SP had won the seat from 1998 to 2014.
Besides, the BSP has sought to queer Akhilesh’s electoral pitch by fielding a Muslim from this seat apparently hoping to bag the dalit and Muslim votes. The OBCs also have a sizable presence here and both Akhilesh and Pathak have been sweating hard to get their support.
‘’Muslims are by and large with the SP’’ says Imran, a resident of the town, sitting at a roadside tea stall. ‘’BSP will also get Muslim votes,’’ countered Shoukat Hussain, another resident, sitting there.
The dalits appear to be divided. While many of them pledged support to the BSP, some voiced their support for the saffron party also. ‘’We have been benefited by the PM Awas Yojna....we will support the BJP,’’ said a resident of Kazitola dalit hamlet.
The SP faces internal dissent here as some influential Yadav leaders, who were expelled from the party after Dimple’s loss in 2019, have since joined the BJP. Besides, a Brahmin himself, Pathak is also certain to get support from the community.
The BJP too faces internal strife here. According to the local BJP leaders Pathak was not on good terms with some powerful Brahmin leaders, who too were in line for the party nomination. ‘’Pathak had a heated exchange with Kanahiya Dixit, an influential Brahmin leader,’’ said a local BJP worker.
Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi addressed a joint election rally here with Akhilesh and AAP leader Sanjay Singh. Almost all senior BJP leaders had addressed election meetings in Kannauj. It will be interesting to see if Akhilesh is able to avenge Dimple’s loss.