Kalyan Singh calibrates his speech to realise his dream
The message cannot be simpler, the old Kalyan Singh is raring to be back at the seat of power in Lucknow and will do whatever it to get there.
By Aarthi Ramachandran, TNN |
BAHJOI, MORADABAD: I have not come here to make an election speech, says former BJP chief minister Kalyan Singh as he begins his public address here, a BSP seat on the outskirts of Moradabad district. But as the Lodh leader continues in his characteristic well-modulated speech, it becomes apparent Mr Singh is doing much more than making a routine appeal for votes.
He is, as the BJP’s chief ministerial candidate, attempting to dismantle the BSP’s latest coalition experiment of bringing Brahmin and Dalits together to vote for the party. “Tilak, tarazu aur talwar, inko maro joote char, is what Mayawati had said and now she wants to wipe out Brahmins and reduce Thakurs by half... She cannot bring different castes together,” Mr Singh says.
He goes on to add that it is only the BJP which can ensure that “tilak, tarazu and talwar” are honoured time and again. He is in the constituency because it has sizeable chunk of Lodh voters, called Khadakvanshi here, who seem to have made up their minds to vote for the BJP candidate. “Give me an MLA from here so that I can build a strong government.
A majority is built by winning seats. Give a me government that will not be shaky,” Mr Singh says. In neighbouring Chandausi, a reserved seat held by the BJP currently, the saffron party’s Brahmin vote bank is in clear danger of being poached by BSP. In the constituency, which has 2,44,00 votes, Brahmins form a small but important segment of the electorate.
The SC vote is the largest here at about 24%, followed by the Muslims at 17% – both of which can be claimed by the BSP in sizeable numbers. It is the rest of the vote – made up of upper castes and OBCs – that is likely to get split between the SP, BJP and BSP.
There has been a rush here to woo each segment separately with the BSP getting its MP Brijesh Mishra to hold a Brahmin Sanmelan and the SP arranging for Mr Amar Singh to talk to Thakurs. According to Mr Pramod Sharma, a member of the zilla parishad here, there are good chances of BSP candidate getting a sizeable amount of Brahmin votes.
“Mayawati has given Brahmins 86 seats in the whole of UP and she is making attempts to include the Brahmins in the mainstream,” he says. Another member of the community, a BJP supporter, has a different view however. “When it is a question of choosing between the BJP and the BSP, the Brahmins will always back the former. Who can forget tilak, tarazu, aur talwar...,” says Sharad Sharma.
He is, as the BJP’s chief ministerial candidate, attempting to dismantle the BSP’s latest coalition experiment of bringing Brahmin and Dalits together to vote for the party. “Tilak, tarazu aur talwar, inko maro joote char, is what Mayawati had said and now she wants to wipe out Brahmins and reduce Thakurs by half... She cannot bring different castes together,” Mr Singh says.
He goes on to add that it is only the BJP which can ensure that “tilak, tarazu and talwar” are honoured time and again. He is in the constituency because it has sizeable chunk of Lodh voters, called Khadakvanshi here, who seem to have made up their minds to vote for the BJP candidate. “Give me an MLA from here so that I can build a strong government.
A majority is built by winning seats. Give a me government that will not be shaky,” Mr Singh says. In neighbouring Chandausi, a reserved seat held by the BJP currently, the saffron party’s Brahmin vote bank is in clear danger of being poached by BSP. In the constituency, which has 2,44,00 votes, Brahmins form a small but important segment of the electorate.
The SC vote is the largest here at about 24%, followed by the Muslims at 17% – both of which can be claimed by the BSP in sizeable numbers. It is the rest of the vote – made up of upper castes and OBCs – that is likely to get split between the SP, BJP and BSP.
There has been a rush here to woo each segment separately with the BSP getting its MP Brijesh Mishra to hold a Brahmin Sanmelan and the SP arranging for Mr Amar Singh to talk to Thakurs. According to Mr Pramod Sharma, a member of the zilla parishad here, there are good chances of BSP candidate getting a sizeable amount of Brahmin votes.
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“Mayawati has given Brahmins 86 seats in the whole of UP and she is making attempts to include the Brahmins in the mainstream,” he says. Another member of the community, a BJP supporter, has a different view however. “When it is a question of choosing between the BJP and the BSP, the Brahmins will always back the former. Who can forget tilak, tarazu, aur talwar...,” says Sharad Sharma.
It is this memory that Mr Kalyan Singh wants to keep fresh in the minds of the BJP’s upper caste electorate. But if Mayawati is ready to reach out to the Brahmins, then Mr Singh indicates that his party is more accommodative now. “Mayawati is no longer the daughter of Dalits, she only the daughter of Daulat (wealth),” he says.
At another point on being told that the BSP MLA in Bahjoi had been accused of supporting acts against Dalits, the leader lets loose a challenge that goes down with a loud roar of support in the 10,000 strong crowd that has come to hear him Bahjoi: “I will put out their eyes if they raise them at you, I will break their hands if they raise them to strike you,” he threatens.
Mr Singh is also scathing on SP chief Mulayam Singh whom, he jokes, he will lodge in the same jail as Ms Mayawati once the courts have given orders for their arrests when he becomes the BJP’s CM. The message cannot be simpler, the old Kalyan Singh is raring to be back at the seat of power in Lucknow and will do whatever it to get there.
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