Jats in a bind: Be loyal to Ajit Singh or buy into Narendra Modi

BAGHPAT: As he blows out air noisily from a deep hookah drag, Kale Chaudhary is a worried man. Sitting on a cot outside his home at the jat dominated village of Dabuthwa in Baghpat, Kale claims to be 100 years old and says he can't recall ever having voted for any candidate other than RLD's Ajit Singh or his father Chaudhary Charan Singh, a legendary politician in these parts.

Kale is surrounded by young members of his extended family, including Amit Kumar, a BA final year student of Meerut College. "Jo bikhar gaya, so Jat nahi (anybody who votes against Ajit Singh will no longer remain a jat)," he tells them, as he explains how his castemen have shaped the politics of the region.

But, as he himself admits, these are not normal times. The riots in neighboring Muzaffarnagar have left the jats even in the neighboring districts feeling battered and resentful. It is easy for these youths to relate to BJP leader Amit Shah's talk about revenge, even if only through ballot and not bullet.

As western UP goes to polls on Thursday, the numerically preponderant and politically volatile jats are a community torn from within. While almost all elderly people still seem to swear by Ajit Singh, the jat youth is looking expectantly at BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.

Kale believes at least Baghpat, a Singh pocketborough and jat capital of sorts, will remain unaffected and is expecting him to make an emotional appeal to the youth to not leave his flock at a rally in nearby Baraut later in the day. Amit nods in agreement all this while. But later, as he steps out of home to see off visiting journalists, he makes it a point to tell them that at least 30-40% of young jats will vote for BJP even in Baghpat.

He has read news reports about how Modi has worked for Gujarat but adds that a victory for Modi's candidates in the region will act — more than anything else — as a "moral victory" for those who felt hard done by in the riots. His friend Devender Kumar, who belongs to a nearby jat village called Chhur, says Baghpat is the only constituency where many jats will still vote for RLD owing to Singh's influence.

RLD is contesting eight seats in the region in alliance with Congress. Singh is also banking on the UPA government decision to include jats in the OBC category just ahead of elections but both Amit and Devender believe the feeling of alienation induced by the riots outweighs any potential benefit from reservations in government jobs. "Where was he when young boys were unfairly detained and roughed up by the cops,'' they ask.

Kale was not wrong. At his last rally at Baraut, Singh is nothing if not emotional. He blames BJP for the riots and says at his age (75), this was probably the last time he was seeking votes for himself. His daughter-in-law says she wants support for him as a "muh dekhai".