Navigating Loyalty Changes: Kanshi-Mulayam Alliance’s Lab of Political Dynamics

Kanshi-Mulayam Alliance

ETAWAH: Alongside the border with Madhya Pradesh, Etawah, with a wealthy tapestry of various communities and clashing ideologies, is a microcosm of Uttar Pradesh’s political kaleidoscope. Days earlier than the constituency goes to the polls, the town pulsates with the echoes of its storied political previous and the aspirations of its resilient populace.
Underneath the relentless summer time solar, Munna Lal, a weathered Dalit elder, shares his reflections, his voice carrying the load of historical past.Making a reference to the Yamuna, Chambal, Sind, Kwari, and Pahuj rivers, which all converge in Etawah, Lal says, “Sahab (Bahujan Samaj Celebration founder Kanshi Ram) kehte the ki in nadiyon ki tarah Dalit agar jud jaye to unhe koi na hara paye. (Sahab used to say that if Dalits come collectively like these rivers, nobody can defeat them…).

Lal, hailing from Bhadpura village, a bastion of the Dalit group in Etawah, identifies as a Jatav, a subgroup to which BSP president Mayawati additionally belongs. Recalling his encounters with Kanshi Ram, Lal describes him as a towering determine with a commanding presence. “I solely met him twice,” he reminisces. “Nonetheless, his ideologies not maintain sway over the Dalit group. Our voting patterns have diversified, ensuing within the fragmentation of our collective affect. We’ve misplaced our pivotal function in shaping election outcomes right here,” he laments. Lal’s phrases unravel the story of Etawah’s political metamorphosis, as soon as hailed because the crucible of the alliance between BSP and Samajwadi Party (SP). In 1991, Kanshi Ram’s electoral triumph — with the (Kanshi-Mulayam Alliance) assistance of Samajwadi Janata Party chief and later Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav — within the then unreserved seat of Etawah stood as a beacon of hope for the historically persecuted Dalits.
It was a time when the Ram Janmabhoomi motion was at its peak, and his victory over BJP’s Ram Singh Verma, Janta Party’s Ram Singh Shakya, together with 45 different candidates, was orchestrated on the muse of Dalit-OBC solidarity, defying the prevailing winds of saffron ascendancy and reshaped the contours of UP’s political panorama. The rallying cry of ‘jude Mulayam, Kanshi Ram, hawa mein ud gaye ‘Jai Shri Ram’ (With Mulayam, Kanshi Ram in a pair, ‘Jai Shri Ram’ chant vanished into skinny air)’ echoed throughout the area.
The Etawah experiment was a precursor to the momentous SP BSP alliance of 1993, which successfully halted the saffron wave. Nonetheless, in 1996, following the dissolution of the SP-BSP alliance in 1995, Shakya, who had jumped ship to SP, reclaimed the seat.
Etawah’s journey from Kanshi Ram’s triumph to the current day is a story of alliances solid and fractures uncovered. Three many years later, in 2019, historical past appeared to repeat itself when SP underneath Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati’s BSP solid an alliance. Nonetheless, political endeavour fell brief as BJP candidate and former SC/ST Fee chairperson Ram Shankar Katheria, hailing from the Dhanuk group, triumphed over BSP-backed SP candidate Kamlesh Kumar.
Lal believes the sands have shifted, and the fissures throughout the Dalit citizens have widened. Lamenting concerning the 1999 polls, Lal says “All of us vote otherwise now, resulting in divisions. We are not any extra a decisive drive in elections.”
Now, with the political carousel spinning once more, Katheria has reentered the sector, his sight set on retaining the seat. SP has fielded Jitendra Kumar Dohare, who defected from BSP in 2020, because the INDIA candidate. BSP charts its personal path by nominating ‘Etawah ki beti’ Sarika Singh Baghel, an ex-RLD MP from Hathras. A sure Mulayam Singh can be within the race as an Unbiased. The battleground is Etawah, the place every candidate vies for the help of the various citizens.
Dalits, Yadavs, Lodhs, Brahmins, and Thakurs — Etawah’s demographics is a posh portrait of shifting allegiances. But, beneath the floor of caste equations lies a craving for progress, for a politics that transcends id and delivers tangible, optimistic change. Lal’s Bhadpura village is a simulation of this paradox. Its dusty lanes bear witness to years of neglect as residents grapple with poverty amid political guarantees. Gauri Shankar’s disillusionment resonates: “There are not any jobs, no faculties, no hospitals right here… But these politicians make lofty claims.”
The neighbouring Kunera village, a bastion of the Yadav group, stands in stark distinction, its prosperity attributed to its unwavering help to SP. Nitin Yadav’s loyalty speaks volumes: “We vote for the social gathering, not the candidate. The cycle (SP image) is our solely hope.”
One other couple of miles away, Pachavali village reverberates with the zeal of BJP loyalists. Vidya Ram Rajput’s conviction is unyielding: “The SP-BSP alliance is a non-starter… solely BJP gives stability and progress.”
As election day looms, Etawah braces itself for a reckoning — a conflict of concepts, beliefs and ideologies that can form its future for years to return. On this crucible of democracy, the place rhetoric meets actuality, the last word victor stays unsure.

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