It's all in the family in Kairana, but voters seem inclined for the 'outsider'.
Kairana, in western Uttar Pradesh, has seen BJP give ticket to its MP Hukum Singh's daughter Mriganka Singh.
In the process, the party has denied claim of Singh's nephew and serious contender Anil Chauhan.
Chauhan, in turn, has nabbed a ticket from Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), joining the party hours before BJP announced Mriganka's candidature. Chauhan had fought election for the Kairana assembly by polls on a BJP ticket after Hukum singh became a member of Parliament.
But while the musical chair is on in the Singh family, the voters say the issues of development and demonetisation and not family legacy will decide their vote.
Mohammed Irfan, selling groundnuts on a cart near Kairana Kotwali, is clear about his choice.
"Akhilesh ne 100 number wali gadi di (PCR vans), rickshaw bantwaya, ghar bhi dega aur Modi ji ne di 70 din line mien khade rehne ki saza. Hum dihadi chhod kar roz apna paisa nikalne ke liye line e mein khade rahe (Akhilesh gave us police vans, rickshaws, and Modiji punished us by making us stand in a queue for 70 days. We had to give up our work to be able to stand in line to withdraw money)," Irfan told CNN-News18.
Mohammed Shehzad, another Kairana resident, had this to say: "Notebandi ne bahut pareshan kiya. bazar band ho gaye (The note ban caused a lot of problems for us. The markets were forced to close because of it)."
Hukum Singh made the Muslim majority town of Kairana famous after he alleged in June last year that Hindu families in Kandla and Kairana are mass migrating after being targeted by Muslim criminal gangs.
Since Kairana had also housed a number of Muslim victims of the Muzzafarnagar riots, the allegations immediately polarised the discourse in this part of western UP.
But on the ground, people rejected Hukum Singh's charge.
Bindu, a Hindu house wife, busy buying vegetables in the main Kairana market said this to CNN-News18,"Palayan to hai per isliye kyonki 2-3 murder ke baad log ghabra gaye the. Hum waise bhi yehan alpsankhyak hain. Per asal mudda hai vikas ka. Yehan koi factory nahi, har kaam ke liye shyamli jaana padta hai (There was migration as people were terrified after a few murders. We anyhow are from the minority group. The real election plank is development)."
Firoz Alam, a fruit trader, had this to say: "Crime does not see who is a Hindu or a Muslim. Biggest problem in Kairana is lack of employment, lack of education. That is the reason why families are migrating to neighbouring cities of Haryana."
Kairana, just a few kilometers away from Haryana's Panipath, has complained that unlike their Haryana cousin, it has no industries, no higher education hubs, no source of employment.
"Jab tak chaudhary Munavvar the yehan vikas hua uske baad sab ruk gaya. Ab unke bete Nahid Hasan se ummeed hai (Till the time Chaudhary Munavvar was alive there was development but after him it all stopped. Now our only source of hope is his son Nahid Hasan) ," Shaheen Khan says.
Chaudhary Munavvar Hasan, a Samajwadi Party MP from the area, died in a road accident in 2008. SP is fielding his son and sitting MLA Nahid Hasan this time.
Retail Cothes Merchant V Chauhan agreed.
"Humare abhi ke sansad itne waqt se yehan vidhyak-sansad rahe hain, per koi vikas nahi hua. Is baar mahagathbandhan se thodi umeed hai (The sitting MLA has not helped in the development of this place. This Mahagathbandhan has raised our hopes," Chauhan said referring to the alliance between Congress and SP.
Hukum Singh agrees that development is an issue, but says the bigger issue is security of the people in the area.
"Security opf people of Kairana is the most important issue this election. Development is number two. Being a rural constituency Kairana is most developed," says Singh.
When asked if he regrets giving a communal colour to the migration issue, Singh said: "I never blamed any community. Was misunderstood by some. However, I stand by the allegations made. It was made based on facts."
Comments
0 comment