Muzaffarnagar, Dadri and Kairana may polarise voters in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh

NEW DELHI: Western UP, going to polls in the first two phases of elections in the state, is likely to see a polarisation on communal lines in the wake of recent conflicts between Muslims and Jats in places like Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, Dadri and Kairana. These areas have witnessed killings over beef, rape of women allegedly to settle scores and several days of curfew.

In all, 73 seats go to polls in the first phase on February 11 and 67 in second phase on February 15. The riots in Muzaffarnagar in August-September 2013 between Muslims and Jats led to 62 deaths, including 42 Muslims. Around 50,000 people were reportedly displaced.

This broke any semblance of Jat-Muslim unity. Violence took place in Shamli district as well in the subsequent days. BJP is said to have gained politically from the incident as Hindu polarisation led to an unprecedented performance by the party in western UP in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. This helped the party win 71 out of 80 LS seats in the state.

BJP made its Muzaffarnagar MP Sanjeev Balyan, who had allegedly made several provocative remarks in the aftermath of the riots, a minister of state in the Modi government. There have been several instances of communal tensions in western UP since and relations between Hindus and Muslims have been strained in the region.

The most controversial case was that of 52-year old Mohammad Akhlaq in Dadri, Gautam Budh Nagar (Noida), who was dragged out of his house by a mob and lynched on September 28, 2015, allegedly for storing beef in his fridge. The issue figured in the Bihar elections as well and is considered one of the reasons that pushed BJP back in the polls there.



Incidents like the gang-rape of a 16-year old girl, whose family was living in a refugee camp after fleeing Muzaffarnagar during the riots, in Shamli had led to tensions in the area. There were riots in Bijnore too allegedly over harassment of girls.

Kairana MP Hukum Singh had raised the issue of several Hindu families in his constituency being forced to migrate to other towns due to pressure from Muslims who are in sizeable numbers in the area. BJP and its Sangh Parivar affiliates have raised this issue on several occasions in the last few months.