New Delhi:
The BJP’s Arun Govil — Lord Ram of the hugely popular television serial Ramayan — set against Samajwadi Party’s Dalit candidate Sunita Verma, Meerut is set to be the Ground Zero of one of the most interesting contests in Uttar Pradesh. The BJP swept the country’s largest and most crucial state in 2014 and 2019, but its total had dropped from 72 to 62 of the 80 seats. The party is now determined to recoup its losses — especially with the 370-seat target laid down by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Samajwadi Party — which is fighting alongside the Congress this time — had partnered Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party in 2019. Together, they had won 15 seats, but Meerut was not one of them.
The party’s candidate Haji Mohammad Yaqoob had lost to the BJP’s two-time sitting MP Rajendra Agarwal.
Mr Agarwal, though, was winning with progressively narrower margins. In 2019, he won with a margin of around 5000 votes. Many said it was because of the division of the Muslim vote, with the SP, Congress and the BSP all picking Muslim candidates.
The BJP, in the pursuit of 370, has now decided to play safe, replacing Mr Agarwal with the hope that the enthusiasm over the Ayodhya Ram temple will speed Mr Govil over the finish line.
But the SP’s final choice of candidate has added some hurdles to the route, with Dalits and Muslims comprising around 50 per cent of the constituency.
The SP had initially picked Bhanu Pratap Singh — a Supreme Court lawyer and an outsider — to contest a seat that has voted for the BJP since 2004.
The selection had raised eyebrows and protests by the party’s local cadre prompted a change. Enter Sardhana MLA Atul Pradhan, but his ticket was swiftly passed to Sunita Verma.
Ms Verma is the former Mayor of Meerut. Her husband Yogesh Verma, a former MLA of the Samajwadi Party, is a well-known face in the constituency.
The contest, though, will be triangular, with the BSP fielding Devvrat Tyagi, playing on the caste considerations perennial to the state.
