BSP, BJP and now SP: Swami Prasad fights ghosts of parties past

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The biggest face to defect from the BJP to the SP ahead of the polls, Maurya is having a rough run in what on paper should have been a safe seat from him. Of Fazilnagar’s voters, roughly 1.5 lakh are Yadavs and Muslims, forming a formidable SP support base. Hopeful of a ticket from Unchahar or Padrauna, from where he has fought before, Maurya had finally gone with Fazilnagar, after the BJP inducted his old Congress Padrauna rival, R P N Singh.

Things seem precarious enough for Sanghmitra, who continues to be a BJP MP, to quit come out in her father’s support.  The SP and BJP have filed FIRs against each other over Tuesday’s incident.

The ex-minister is facing a tough fight not just from the BJP, but also another former party of his, the BSP. Maurya was a prominent BSP leader before he joined the BJP ahead of the 2017 polls.

The BSP candidate from Fazilnagar is Illias Ansari, who was passed over by the SP for a ticket in favour of Maurya. His entry means the Muslim vote could get split.

The BJP also has a strong candidate in Surendra Kushwaha, the son of two-term BJP MLA Ganga Singh Kushwaha.

Nasruddin Ahmad, who lives in Belwa Bazar, says they gained nothing from electing the BJP candidate last time. “But people know Illias and that he will be with us through thick and thin.

However, Ahmad too is wary that votes for Illias may end up helping the BJP.

After Tuesday’s incident, the SP is expecting some sympathy votes for Maurya, especially among the backward classes. The SP has been telling people only it can take on BJP “hooligans”, a message that resonates well in a seat with a significant minority and backward population.

The caste and religious schism is evident even among the young. Puja Madhesiya, 20, an undergraduate student and one of seven siblings, says, “Arrey, Hindu hain to Hindu ki party ke liye hee na vote karenge (We are Hindus, who else will we vote for but a Hindu party)?” Hushed by the elders, Pooja says quietly: “What I mean is that we will vote for those who have done good work.” And “Modiji” and “Yogiji” have done good work, she says.

Vandana Gupta, 30, supports the BJP for the free ration during the pandemic and grant to farmers by the Modi government.

The reason BJP supporters fall back on the PM and CM is that, like Ahmad, they agree that the sitting MLA did not do anything for Fazilnagar. “Vikas ke naam pe”, locals say, they got just a “mini-stadium”, whose foundation stone was laid by Yogi Adityanath in October 2020 but remains far from completion, and an electricity substation.

Now the crumbling wall and the overgrown grass at the stadium is a sign of an abandoned dream. “The children practise on the road… if it had got made, they could have done so in comfort,” says Ram Preet Kushwaha, referring to aspirants for Army and police recruitment.

Chanau Verma, an OBC like Maurya, says it’s time to bring back the SP. The BJP’s is a “dalalon ki sarkar, he says. Should Maurya win, he could become a minister and get jobs to Fazilnagar, Verma says. “We have heard, he got a lot of jobs to people of Unchahar and Padrauna.”