Battle before the war: BSP leaders allege their cadres are being attacked by SP in Uttar Pradesh

On December 9, Nasir Khan, a politician was shot dead by an assailant on a motorcycle in Meerut in Uttar Pradesh. On December 1, Virendra Rajbhar, the sarpanch of Chitkon village in the state’s Jaunpur district, was murdered. On November 22, Bansraj Chouhan, a resident of Ghurhupur village in Ambedkar Nagar district was assaulted. On November 13, Bacha Ram and his family were brutally attacked in Akhaipur village in the same district.

In isolation, these and other similar attacks seem to be the outcome of local rivalries and animosities in a state known for its high crime rates and apparent lawlessness.

However, members of the Bahujan Samaj Party have alleged that these were planned attacks being carried out against their members, by supporters of the rival Samajwadi Party, which is in power in the state. They alleged that there has been a spike in such assaults ahead of the state elections early next year.

While Bansraj, is a Bahujan Samaj Party leader of the Chouhan caste, listed as a most backward caste, Bacha Ram and his family members are Jatavs – a Dalit sub-caste that actively supports Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party. Rajbhar was a key mobiliser of the party in rural areas of Jaunpur. For the murder of Khan, who was a leader of the Bahujan Samaj Party, a Samajwadi Party member has been arrested.

Ugly competition?

“Workers of rival parties tend to fight during elections, but this time, it is a kind of war launched against our cadres,” Ram Achal Rajbhar, state president of the Bahujan Samaj Party, told Scroll.in. “There are many more cases of this kind in rural areas of the state. These attacks and harassment are being done with the single objective of terrorising our cadres and supporters so that they do not come out in large numbers in support of Behenji [as Mayawati is called].”

The Samajwadi Party on its part promptly refuted the allegation, terming it an attempt to malign its image ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections. “No such case has come to my notice,” said Heeralal Yadav, the president of the Ambedkar Nagar unit of the Samajwadi Party and a member of the state Legislative Council. “The allegation is totally baseless. It is being leveled to tarnish the image of our party.”

However, Bahujan Samaj Party leaders said seemingly disparate assaults on their workers had become increasingly common in other eastern Uttar Pradesh districts as well, apart from Ambedkar Nagar and Jaunpur

“The low-key aggression against our cadre rarely becomes public because police always side with perpetrators and hardly ever make any arrest despite complaints by victims,” Rajbar said. “As attacks are being reported mostly in rural areas, they often fuse with general deterioration in law and order under the SP [Samajwadi Party] government in the state.”

Spreading fear

In some cases, Bahujan Samaj Party leaders said, the assaults are subtle, aimed at instilling fear in the minds of supporters and cadres of the Dalit party. “Similar incidents had been witnessed ahead of the Assembly election of 2007, when Behenji ousted the SP government,” said Ramsubhawan Bharti, a senior Bahujan Samaj Party leader in Faizabad district. “Whenever there is an election and a challenge is posed to the ruling SP by our party, there begins a planned attack on our cadres in order to terrorise them. This is more visible in areas dominated by Yadavs and Thakurs.” While Yadav is an other backward caste dominant in the state which constitutes the core vote base of the Samajwadi Party, Thakurs are an upper caste that usually support the Samajwadi Party or the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Party leaders further said that such attacks were largely unheard of in areas where the Bahujan Samaj Party leaders belonged to the caste that was locally strong. Thus, while cases of assault on BSP workers are not uncommon in Azamgarh, a Samajwadi Party stronghold, they are not heard of in the Gopalpur Assembly constituency of the district.

“No one can dare to harass the BSP cadres in my constituency,” said Kamla Prasad Yadav, the Dalit party leader whose name Mayawati has cleared for the Gopalpur seat. “They [the rivals] know that there will be serious repercussions if they touch any BSP worker in this area.”