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Of pride, prejudice and by-elections

Family pride and the clout of the Thakur community, an upper caste Hindu community, seems to be the important factors in this dusty assembly constituency of northern Uttar Pradesh, where by-elections are due on February 17.

In Pratapgarh, the stakes are high for Amar Singh, a confidant of Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav. Chandranath Singh, a protege of Amar Singh, had vacated the seat after he won the Machchlishahar seat in the 1999 Lok Sabha elections. Now his wife Usha Singh is contesting the seat, with her husband, film star Raj Babbar and Mulayam Singh visiting this semi-urban constituency twice to assist her cause.

The results here have much to do with the Thakur and Muslim vote. People here feel that the Muslim vote alone could well decide matters.

Usha Singh hits the road in a Tata Sumo and husband Chandranath Singh steps out to make speeches at roadside shops.

"Nepotism is not an issue here," he claims. "The main fight is between my wife and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party nominee, Brijesh Kumar, a Brahmin," he said.

The Pratapgarh by-election is also proving to be testing waters for Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiyya, a young and influential minister in the BJP-led Gupta ministry in the state. Though a Thakur, Pratap Singh is heading the campaign for the BJP's Brahmin nominee.

He has the arduous task of wooing over the Thakurs, not known to easily shift loyalties. Friend-turned-foe Lal Bahadur Singh of the Bahujan Samajwadi Party is one of the challengers in this contest.

But SP leaders say the BSP is nowhere in the race. They claim that BSP leader Mayawati can draw crowds, but not votes, for her party nominee though he won in 1993 when the SP and the BSP were in alliance.

Meanwhile, Apna Dal, a fledgling political outfit, has fielded a Muslim, A Salam. This could pull a great many Muslim votes away from the SP nominee. But she feels the votes of other communities will compensate the loss.

The Loktantrik Congress Party, a junior partner in the ruling coalition, has withdrawn its district president, Balwant Singh, from the race.

About 40 per cent of the polling booths here have either been declared sensitive or hypersensitive.

There is more interest in this election in the rural areas because Electronic Voting Machines are to be used in this constituency.

Assembly Election 2000

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