Lok Sabha Polls 2024: Will Bareilly Ka Bazaar continue to be music to BJP's ears?

Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh's gateway to the hills, has been a BJP bastion, with party leader Santosh Singh Gangwar holding the seat for eight terms. However, with BJP denying a ticket to the former Union minister this time, the Opposition INDIA bloc has sensed an opportunity.

Rejection of BSP candidate's nomination has added another dimension to the May 7 election here, making it a bipolar contest.




Known more for his agreeability in the area than any notable achievement, Gangwar was replaced, due to his age, by Chhatrapal Singh Gangwar, former MLA from Baheri in Bareilly and former state minister. To contain potential damage, Prime Minister Narendra Modi ensured Santosh Gangwar was on stage with him during his public address in neighbouring Pilibhit on April 9, where too Kurmis are an important voter bloc. Then, on Friday, Modi held a roadshow in Bareilly with Santosh, Chhatrapal and chief minister Yogi Adityanath joining him atop his vehicle.

BJP leaders say after initial hiccups and some resistance by Santosh loyalists, Chhatrapal, a former teacher and principal, has now come into the reckoning. The party's avid supporters, including upper caste businessmen as well as a section of OBCs such as Kurmis and Mauryas say the vote will be cast in the name of Modi and the party will win the seat.

Aron and some locals insist otherwise. "The denial of ticket to Santosh ji will prove deadly for BJP and they cannot salvage the situation now. Unless the EVM is with them, nothing can help them," Aron told ET before leaving for his campaigning.

A former two-time MLA, one-time MP as well as former state minister, Aron also enjoys a largely positive reputation for his amiability and social activities. Locals say while he would have not stood a chance against Santosh (he polled less than 100,000 votes in 2014 and 2019), with Santosh out of the fray, dynamics may change.

Ask him about the Modi factor and Aron says, "There is no Modi factor. I am better than Modi here and Santoshji is better than Modi as far as Bareilly is concerned. Bareilly-ites are not the kind of people who will go for any personality just like that, especially when the personality is exposed in 10 years of governance."

Aron is also being aided by SP's 2019 Lok Sabha poll candidate here, Bhagwat Saran Gangwar, who polled close to 400,000 votes in the election and is now contesting from Pilbhit. His association is likely to swing a section of the 300,000-odd Kurmi votes in INDIA's favour and add to the Muslim support. Muslims make for about 600,000 of more than 1.9 million voters here.

Earlier this month, a post of a BJP leader came into the limelight which said Chhatrapal had lamented that the workers and local legislators were not campaigning for him and had even offered to surrender his ticket. "I did not make any such statements. It is the opposition's ploy. The campaign is progressing under his (Santosh's) leadership. He was there when I filed the nomination and at the opening of all our party offices here. BJP will register a record win from here," Chhatrapal told ET.

He conceded that unemployment was an issue in the region and said he would work on getting small industrial units to Bareilly that employ the youth. Closure of multiple factories like the Synthetic and Chemicals Ltd, which was once Asia's only synthetic rubber-producing factory before it went belly up in 1999, as well as ITC-owned Wimco, continue to haunt the area.

Bareilly houses the shrine of Ahmed Raza Khan Barelvi or Ala Hazrat, pioneer of the Barelvi movement of Sunni Islam. Santosh Gangwar is known to have received substantial support from Muslims during his terms, with locals talking of his friendship with Tauqueer Raza Khan, great-grandson of Ala Hazrat.

But the PM's statements about Congress wanting to give away rights and mangalsutras of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and OBCs to Muslims have not helped. Show me one leader more decent than Santosh Gangwar. But how can we vote for someone who keeps othering us?" said Salim, a motor mechanic.